1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 52

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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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Ranked 1st in School Hides Her Regression
52
Jung Eun-seong, a second-year student in Class 2, was conscientious by nature.
And he loved films.
In fact, he enjoyed movies and dramas far more than his main pursuits of choreography and singing.
Still, there was no reason to watch a film he’d already seen on opening day at the theater a second time with Drama Club members he wasn’t particularly close to.
Especially not when it was a work that had left him unmoved.
He had choreography to master by tomorrow.
Having wasted time watching the movie today, he’d need to double his efforts tonight.
He could have simply declined, said he had other plans. So why hadn’t he?
‘The movie was decent.’
It was worth seeing twice. That’s why he went. Besides, once a film ends at the theater, it’s done, isn’t it?
……But hadn’t he just said it left him unmoved?
On top of that, he’d only watched the last thirty minutes while waiting for Do Ha-jun with Kang Da-hye—hardly enough to judge the film at all.
‘A day has twenty-four hours, so thirty minutes is plenty. My eyes were bothering me anyway.’
He had two eyes and a lifetime to use them—he should take care of them.
Flip-flopping like this, contradicting himself—what was the truth anyway?
The contradictory boy Jung Eun-seong shuffled his way toward the Bus Stop.
The other Drama Club members had already scattered, some heading off to see the cherry blossoms, others to a PC room or wherever else they were going.
Not wanting to get caught up in the middle of it all, he’d ducked into the Restroom to wash his hands and reapply sunscreen before heading out.
As he stepped onto the escalator leading outside, his phone rang.
“…….”
An unknown number. Eun-seong brushed it off lightly and boarded the escalator.
The plaza in front of the Shopping Mall, immediately visible below, was still crowded with people enjoying the blossoms.
Seizing the moment, there was someone playing the Cherry Blossom Opening, someone else stretching up on tiptoes trying to tuck a flower behind their ear without breaking a branch—and standing among them, someone even more like spring than the flowers themselves.
She’d been so delighted at receiving a single petal that he’d wanted to collect a hundred petals and give them to her.
A hundred?
No.
A thousand.
Was that enough?
Ten thousand, maybe?
As Eun-seong recalled that vacant expression she’d worn while accepting the petals and looking at him, he lowered his eyes and smiled to himself.
“Jung Eun-seong.”
Someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.
He turned to find Han Ji-yeong. Kang Da-hye’s friend.
Han Ji-yeong confirmed the phone in Eun-seong’s hand and ended the call. At the same moment, his phone stopped vibrating.
“Wow. You really just ignored my call outright.”
“…….”
“Don’t tell me you don’t even have my number saved?”
Guilty.
Eun-seong remained silent.
Looking up at him, Han Ji-yeong smiled brightly.
“Got a minute?”
“No.”
“You’re heading to catch the bus anyway, right? We can talk on the way.”
“Fine.”
He could hardly stop her if she insisted on walking beside him and talking. At his assent, Ji-yeong (though Eun-seong was confused about this, her actual name was Ji-su) asked immediately.
“Did I do something to offend you?”
The direct question caught him off guard, and Eun-seong shook his head.
“No.”
“Really? Because you seem kind of hostile toward me.”
“I’m not.”
Hostile or otherwise, he didn’t have enough interest in her to qualify. She was just Kang Da-hye’s friend, after all. Someone he only saw during class changes.
“Then why do you ignore my messages and never start conversations with me? That wouldn’t happen unless you had bad feelings toward me.”
“…….”
“We’re going to be in the Drama Club together for the next year, and we’re the leads in the play. It’ll be awkward like this.”
To an outsider, it would sound as though Eun-seong were the one being unilaterally rude.
But Eun-seong had things he could say in his own defense.
He hadn’t been ignoring her. When they passed in the halls, he greeted her; when she asked him something, he answered. He responded earnestly to her messages. The only thing he ignored was casual banter.
Getting along didn’t necessarily mean chatting idly back and forth, did it?
“Done saying what you wanted to say?”
Eun-seong looked down at Ji-yeong. Even though she stood one escalator step below him, he was tall enough that it hardly mattered.
Under his steady gaze, Ji-yeong confessed.
“Yeah. Truth is, I want to be friends with you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re close with Da-hye.”
“?”
What was she getting at? That she didn’t want to feel left out? But before Eun-seong could ask, Ji-yeong beat him to it.
“And that thing you said earlier about reading the mood—you weren’t doing that because of that incident at the Canteen, were you?”
“The Canteen?”
“When you’d just transferred. My friends said some things about Da-hye there.”
She had to clear this up, Ji-yeong decided, crossing her arms and meeting his eyes.
“You probably only caught the beginning, but I was on the phone that day. It was important, so I couldn’t cut them off right away.”
That’s right.
“I got apologies from them afterward, and they all admitted they were wrong. That’s why we’re still close. Don’t get me wrong.”
Hmm.
“Da-hye is my best friend. My closest friend. But those kids are my friends too, so… I just want us all to get along. Without fighting.”
Yeah.
“I didn’t tell Da-hye about them because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. There’s no point in knowing people talk about you behind your back, right? Da-hye’s actually pretty sensitive about that kind of thing.”
“Right.”
He wasn’t interested. He gave a halfhearted reply.
But Han Ji-yeong—Ji-su, not Ji-yeong!—seemed to think that settled everything.
Ji-yeong gently took hold of Eun-seong’s arm and smiled brightly.
“So you’re not misunderstanding anymore, right?”
“Never was.”
“Good. Let’s get along. Da-hye’s between us, after all. If we don’t get along, Da-hye will be sad.”
Fair enough.
He’d seen her cry once, and it had left a bitter taste in his mouth.
That’s why he’d picked a fight with her back then.
Watching her get angry was so much better.
Like when she’d gone off about the stable or whatever.
‘What, are you riding in on horseback? Can’t find a stable to park your horse, so you’re running late?’
Eun-seong murmured to himself as he recalled the image of Da-hye waving a straw around indignantly.
“It’s actually funny.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s clearly something….”
“The bus is coming.”
Eun-seong, who’d been about to dash off without saying goodbye, paused.
“Han Ji-yeong.”
“It’s Han Ji-su…….”
“Take care.”
Right, so she was Da-hye’s closest friend after all.
* * *
“What’s so funny?”
“A Choux Cream.”
“Sounds delicious.”
The guy sprawled out flat on the ground groaned and rolled over to his side. He was an older member of Eun-seong’s unit, practicing together with him.
The company atmosphere, already tense since the Debut Group noona’s scandal, was walking on thin ice today as well.
The boy group already had its Debut Group seniors with fixed lineups, but apparently someone over there had caused trouble too.
The CEO was furious and kept shuffling the members around, and around again—it was chaos.
All the trainees were on edge because of it.
While everyone else was soaked in sweat and at a loss for words, Eun-seong alone was smiling to himself, and his teammates looked at him oddly.
“What’s so great about a Choux Cream?”
“Just listen to this.”
Something about Da-hye’s screen, something about a Choux Cream, on and on.
“So anyway.”
He couldn’t talk like this at school. Everyone there knew Da-hye.
Now that he was in a place where he could freely talk about Da-hye, Eun-seong had plenty to say.
It was rare for the usually quiet Eun-seong to talk this much, so the trainee listening to him wore an increasingly strange expression.
Eun-seong, oblivious to her irritation, chattered away cheerfully.
“So even though that guy was late, she just got furious all by herself. Said it only takes ten minutes by bus, so what’s an hour? Asked if he rode a horse or something. Then after a while he showed up, but he just kept talking about himself and wouldn’t listen to anyone else, so she sat there quietly thinking, ‘Listen to me for once, or stop riding around on that thing’—it was hilarious.”
“…Eun-seong.”
“Yes?”
“So what’s actually funny about that?”
“…? It’s not funny to you?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Oh.”
Eun-seong’s enthusiasm deflated, and he closed his mouth sheepishly.
Watching him quietly, his older brother lifted his torso from where he’d been rubbing it against the Practice Room floor.
“That’s the girl you told me about before, isn’t it? The one who studies really well?”
Had I really brought up Kang Da-hye before?
I might have. Kang Da-hye’s amusing enough.
“Yeah. She’s really smart. Deep thinker too.”
“She’s a girl?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Hey, Jung Eun-seong.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not thinking about dating her, are you?”

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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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