1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 4

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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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Top Student in School Hides Her Regression
Episode 4
When Eun Seong opened his eyes this morning.
He felt as though he’d just woken from a long sleep.
‘I only got two hours of sleep.’
He’d been trapped in the Practice Room until three in the morning receiving feedback on the End-of-Month Evaluation.
With so little rest, he should have been exhausted, yet somehow his mind felt sharp and his mood oddly buoyant.
Checking the clock, he had seventeen minutes before the alarm would go off.
Normally he would have pulled the blanket up and rolled over, trying to reclaim whatever sleep he could.
But today, strangely, he wanted to get to school early.
He wanted to go and check something.
Check what?
He had no idea.
“You’re up early,” his sister said.
“Yeah.”
“Breakfast?”
“I’m good. Are you making something?”
“I already ate.”
Even as he showered and dried his hair and pulled on the school uniform he’d hung up the night before, his heart kept fluttering inexplicably.
An excitement he couldn’t quite explain.
“You’re leaving already?”
“Yeah.”
In the end, Eun Seong left home twenty minutes earlier than usual.
[This is the stop before GoGoGo High School. Next stop: JungJungJung Middle School…….]
The walk to school, which he’d grown familiar with in just four days, seemed utterly ordinary.
Familiar avenue trees, familiar apartment complexes, familiar convenience stores and internet cafés and math hagwons.
Just as his buoyant mood was beginning to settle back to normal.
“Ah.”
He realized he’d forgotten to drink his milk in his rush to leave.
A certain five-year veteran top idol senior who was always popping into the basement practice room during busy schedules to gather the male trainees and dispense unsolicited advice once said:
‘Don’t regret it later—take preventive measures now. Set a schedule and stretch three times a day, drink two liters of milk daily, and get to bed early!’
……It was all about height.
The only piece of advice from that senior worth taking seriously.
Already six centimeters taller than that senior, Eun Seong couldn’t empathize with his desperation, but he agreed that he needed to grow considerably more.
So he kept stacks of white milk at home and drank it regularly.
It was routine to drink exactly one 500ml carton of milk every morning, even if he skipped breakfast—but today he’d forgotten in his rush.
“…….”
Eun Seong’s current height was 179.7 centimeters.
Just 0.3 centimeters more and the first digit would change, but that proved surprisingly difficult.
Because Eun Seong was secretly quite sensitive about his in-between height, he glanced at the clock and stopped by the School Canteen.
“Good-looking student, what’ll it be?”
“Milk, please.”
“Milk? Chocolate milk?”
“No. Plain white milk.”
“We only have the small cartons…….”
“Five, please.”
The canteen owner watched with fascination as Eun Seong lined up the milk cartons like yogurt bottles and drank them one after another, each one disappearing with a gulp.
“Your hands are really big, student. The milk looks so cute in your hands.”
“Yes.”
He was folding up the five now-empty small cartons to toss in the recycling bin when he heard it.
“Actually, Seo Jae-gyeom really is handsome.”
“Yeah. The most handsome guy in our school.”
“What are you talking about? He’s the most handsome guy I know.”
…There’s someone more handsome than me at this school?
His feet, which had been heading for the door, naturally came to a stop.
Turning around, he saw four girls sitting at a long table in the Cafeteria attached to the canteen.
One of them caught his eye—a girl with long, straight black hair falling loosely down her back.
‘I’ve seen her somewhere before.’
Eun Seong’s eyes narrowed.
As Eun Seong stared at the long-haired girl who was on a phone call and not joining the conversation, the other girls continued talking, completely unaware of his presence.
“Kang Da-hye likes Seo Jae-gyeom, doesn’t she?”
“What?! Really?!”
“How could you not know? It’s so obvious.”
Girl 1 scoffed as though the question were absurd.
“But wait—doesn’t Seo Jae-gyeom like Ji-su?”
Girl 3 exclaimed with exasperation from beside Girl 2, whose mouth hung open.
“Wait, who’s Kang Da-hye? I’m the only one who doesn’t know?”
“The pale, skinny girl in Class 2. The Top Student in School.”
“She’s the top student?”
“The homeroom teacher mentioned it before—apparently last year she only got one question wrong across all subjects the entire year.”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“Look at how obvious it is that you don’t study.”
“Want to fight?”
“But she really likes Seo Jae-gyeom?”
“They’re a terrible match.”
“Well, I mean, she’s allowed to like someone, right~.”
But Girl 1’s face was filled with mockery, eager to ridicule Kang Da-hye’s feelings for Seo Jae-gyeom.
Girl 2 asked again.
“But Seo Jae-gyeom likes Ji-su, doesn’t he? Isn’t Kang Da-hye close with Ji-su?”
“Yeah. That’s why Seo Jae-gyeom dislikes her.”
“Did Seo Jae-gyeom say that himself? That he dislikes Kang Da-hye?”
“He didn’t say it with words, but it’s obvious from watching.”
Girl 1 stated it as fact—plain to see. Girl 3 picked up the thread.
“Wow, but she has no pride either. If someone I liked was crushing on my friend, I’d never let it show.”
“It’s not a pride thing—it’s that she lacks social awareness.”
“Kids like that are always kind of oblivious, you know? The studious types.”
“Yeah, based on how she carries herself, she doesn’t come across as particularly sensible.”
“Still, she’s got guts. She lets it show that she likes him.”
“It’s not letting it show—it’s just showing without her realizing.”
“What if she’s doing it on purpose?”
“To keep Ji-su from having him?”
“Oh, playing the long game?”
“Devious.”
They made a fuss about it before the conversation dried up when they started eating bread.
It was Girl 1 who picked the conversation back up.
This time, the subject was Kang Da-hye again.
“Did you see her school bag? I thought she was in elementary school.”
“Pretty sure she’s had that thing since elementary. My friend went to the same elementary and middle school as her, and she said the bag was identical since sixth grade.”
“No way? Doesn’t it have holes in it? Get a new one.”
“Leave her alone. She probably doesn’t have the money.”
“You all need to stop.”
It was then that the straight-haired girl, who had been on the phone, set her face hard and shot back.
The others flinched at the stern expression on her face. She spoke.
“That’s going too far. What are you doing? You know Da-hye’s close to me—why are you bad-mouthing her right in front of me?”
“It’s not that we…….”
“Ji-su, you and Seo Jae-gyeom seem to be hitting it off, so she…….”
“Why are you all deciding that on your own? I don’t care about Seo Jae-gyeom.”
It was then that Eun Seong remembered.
That Ji-su girl—she’s the one who came to our class during lunch yesterday and waited for a friend.
And Kang Da-hye.
‘Our class.’
He recalled how the homeroom teacher had introduced her when she enrolled, saying she was the steady Top Student in School and that everyone should ask her if there was anything they didn’t know because the curriculum might differ from their previous schools.
‘She looked so smart back then.’
Why was he hearing this kind of talk behind her back?
Eun Seong sighed and tossed his milk carton into the trash.
The girls finally noticed his presence and turned, startled, but Eun Seong was already leaving the cafeteria.
‘Lacking awareness. No pride. Wearing a bag like she’s still in elementary school.’
It’s so easy to shred a person with words.
Honestly, whether Kang Da-hye got shredded or not wasn’t Eun Seong’s concern, but maybe because the phrasing was harsh—the words kept circling in his head.
Turning these thoughts over, he entered the 4th Floor Corridor where the second-year classrooms were.
“Argh!”
A smartphone skittered across the floor and came to rest at Eun Seong’s feet.
An old model, judging by the wear—a scratched-up device he picked up off the ground.
‘…Unrequited Love Playlist?’
Ninety-eight songs.
When Eun Seong lifted his gaze, Kang Da-hye swam into view—her face crimson, her eyes glistening with tears.
Irritation flashed through him, sudden and sharp.
He didn’t know why.
Why are you crying every time I see you?
‘Every time I see her?’
Without understanding why that thought had surfaced, Eun Seong opened his mouth.
* * *
“Really? Da-hye knows a lot of good songs? That’s surprising.”
“No! I don’t! I don’t!”
“You do. I saw you. You were throwing your own solo concert night.”
“Is that so? Da-hye, instead of throwing a party alone, why don’t you invite us too?”
“What?!”
“Then let’s have Da-hye choose the song before the Performance Evaluation.”
The teacher ignored my protests and turned his body toward the piano keyboard.
I spun around and glared at Jung Eun Seong.
-Are you insane?
I ripped a page from my notebook and scrawled a note, passing it to the friend sitting behind me.
“Give this to Jung Eun Seong.”
I watched with burning eyes as the note made its way to Jung Eun Seong.
Jung Eun Seong took the note—hastily folded in half—and flipped it over once, front and back.
Then he tossed it backward and dropped it in the trash.
“…….”
“…….”
“Teacher. Kang Da-hye keeps glaring at me.”
“Da-hye, I’m right here. No matter how handsome Eun Seong is, you need to face forward during class, don’t you?”
“…….”
In that moment, neither the frustration of forgetting everything I’d learned in high school nor the embarrassment of my teenage-angst playlist came to mind.
All that remained in my head was a burning thirst for vengeance against Jung Eun Seong…!
I paid no attention to Seo Jae-gyeom—who’d given me the cold shoulder hours before—watching us both with a disapproving eye from across the room.
‘Just you wait.’
This was war.
Next class period.
“Who wants to come up and solve the practice problems?”
“Teacher. Eun Seong says he wants to.”
The class after that.
“You understand, right? Who wants to read the next paragraph?”
“Teacher. Kang Da-hye says she wants to.”
“Does anyone want to skip break time and move these boxes to the Faculty Office?”
“Teacher. Eun Seong raised his hand. I saw him.”
“Teacher. Kang Da-hye looks like she’s on her phone.”
“Teacher. Eun Seong isn’t studying—he’s drawing.”
“Teacher, Kang Da-hye is…….”
“Teacher, Eun Seong is…….”
“Kang Da-hye, Eun Seong!”
Finally, at lunch, the homeroom teacher stormed into the classroom, face flushed, and called us both out.

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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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