1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 64

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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 in School Hides Her Regression
Episode 64
“Da-hye!”
“What’s wrong? Did someone steal your uniform?”
“Honestly, who steals a uniform?”
Friends crowded around me as I entered the Classroom in a borrowed uniform, hastily put together. I waved them off, sidestepping their reach.
“Don’t come close. I smell like sweat.”
“You don’t, though.”
Se-in sniffed conspicuously and leaned in to whisper.
“But your hair looks like you haven’t washed it.”
I fixed my bangs with the apple-shaped Hair Pin Se-in handed me.
“Da-hye, your forehead is seriously round.”
I apologized earnestly to friends who applauded me despite my bedraggled appearance.
“I’m sorry. If my sweat ruins your uniforms, I’ll buy you new ones.”
“No, seriously—you don’t smell like sweat at all.”
“Thanks, you guys…….”
They must have been thrown off when I suddenly asked to borrow a uniform this morning, but they lent it without a single question or complaint. That kind of thoughtfulness gets me every time.
I really am lucky.
“But what actually happened?”
“Oh, my mom got in a car accident…….”
“A car accident?!”
“Don’t even mention it. I heard about it and bolted out the door, and I almost got hit by a car myself.”
“What? Are you hurt?!”
“My heart took the hit.”
Looks like I’m recovering after all. The fact that I can joke around is a good sign.
“You guys, could I borrow a Computer Pen and some Correction Tape?”
I hadn’t brought so much as a School Bag—not even a single pen for the exam. Do-yeon handed me a spare, which I tucked into my pocket. Watching me, my friends exchanged knowing looks and dispersed.
“Alright. Let’s talk details after the exam.”
“Yeah. We have to memorize vocab right up until the last second.”
“The exam’s practically here and you’re only now trying to cram vocabulary…….”
“What happened?”
As desks were rearranged into exam formation, Seo Jae-gyeom—now at a distance from me—asked the question. Unlike me, he was impeccable from head to toe, and his gaze swept over my disheveled state.
“The Hair Pin is cute.”
“Yeah. It’s Se-in’s.”
“So what’s the actual story?”
I opened Jung Eun-seong’s Problem Book that I’d grabbed and dodged the question.
“Well. That is…….”
Did I really have to spell it out?
If I didn’t tell him, he’d just sulk about how I only kept secrets from him.
“My mom got into a hit-and-run accident early yesterday morning.”
“A hit-and-run?!”
“Yeah… thankfully it wasn’t serious.”
“Did they catch who did it?!”
“The police are investigating, but it doesn’t look like they’ll catch the person. There was no CCTV there.”
Rustle.
“Everyone! Did you study hard?!”
Our homeroom teacher burst in with infectious enthusiasm, cutting off our conversation. Behind him came Jung Eun-seong, who’d been dragged to the Teacher’s Office and scolded for wearing a summer uniform, and he was now wringing out his hair with the T-shirt he’d taken off.
He must have washed his hair while he was in trouble, because he was drying it off with vigor.
A low whistle of admiration escaped someone’s lips.
“Of course you studied hard! You’re all amazing! You’re Grade 2 Class 2, after all!”
“Grade 2 Class 2 student roster: Kang Da-hye. One person.”
“And that was everyone.”
Our whole class had perfect timing for this kind of bit, though I stayed focused on the Problem Book, utterly indifferent.
“Why’s he wearing a summer uniform?”
Seo Jae-gyeom muttered beside me. I worked through an example of the problem type I kept getting wrong, using only my eyes, and responded.
“Something came up.”
“…Do you know why?”
“Yeah.”
“…….”
“Guys… is Da-hye really the only one who studied a lot?!”
“I haven’t studied that much either….”
“Right~ you haven’t~ you’re supposed to do ten thousand hours, but you’ve done nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine~”
“Do Ha-jun, be quiet for a moment.”
“…….”
Maybe I’d had a bit of a crush on Jung Eun-seong even before the regression.
That would explain why I was so embarrassed when we ran into each other at the office that day.
I would have been embarrassed to meet anyone in that situation, but to be embarrassed to *that* degree.
It was probably because the other person was Jung Eun-seong.
“Everyone, and this is something that was decided urgently at this morning’s meeting. Starting with this midterm exam, we’ve decided to publicly post all grades on the bulletin board.”
“What?!”
My thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
Publicly posted?!
Is this the Shine World?!
How long has the Personal Information Protection Act been in effect…. Weren’t we supposed to not be able to do that anymore……?
“It’s a request from the Parent-Teacher Association. Your scores on the March Practice Exam were so poor that this is an emergency measure. We have no choice either.”
Is the Parent-Teacher Association above the law?!
“Not everyone—just the top thirty students. We’ll post them on the Left Staircase Bulletin Board.”
“Ugh, what~”
The classmates who had been about to protest vehemently went limp at those words.
“I won’t even be on it anyway.”
“Actually, wouldn’t it be better to be posted?”
“So is there finally no way to hide who the top students are?”
“Not my problem~”
“…….”
If I don’t come in first this time, everyone will see my fall from grace…….
“I’m betting a thousand won that Kang Da-hye gets first!”
“Me too!”
“Me too!”
“Seriously, if everyone bets on Kang Da-hye, there’s no game left.”
“Quiet, the teacher’s talking.”
“Thanks, vice class rep.”
Seo Jae-gyeom quieted everyone down.
‘This damn exam, right up to the very end it grinds your soul to dust.’
My mind elsewhere, I gathered the Computer Pen that Do-yeon had lent me and the mechanical pencil and eraser from my desk, then stood up.
“Everyone, you know this, right? You’re going to Grade 1 Class 2. Just sit in number order there.”
“Yes.”
To prevent cheating, the second-year girls swap classes with the first-year boys to take the exam.
“Kang Da!”
Walking down the corridor looking utterly defeated, I ran into Ji-su.
“Ji-su… good luck on the exam…….”
“Why does your face look like that? Oh, you heard about the grade posting.”
“Yeah… your mom’s the Parent-Teacher Association president, isn’t she…?”
“Yeah…… that was actually my mom’s suggestion…….”
A solemn silence.
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“No…….”
“I brought these, have some.”
I accepted two boiled eggs.
“See you later! Good luck on the test!”
“You too!”
I arrived at Grade 1 Class 2.
“You’re eating that now?”
“Huh? Oh, no. Do-yeon, do you want one?”
“No.”
“Oh. Kang Da, can I eat one then? I’m starving, I think I’m going to lose it.”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Thanks. Here, eat this in return.”
I traded the chocolate Su-a gave me and chewed on it as I found my seat.
Soon the Grade 2 Class 1 proctor entered through the front door and tapped the blackboard sharply with his conductor’s baton.
“I’ll speak briefly now about the importance of this exam.”
Tap, tap.
“Listen, when you get out into the world later, you’re going to make mistakes—it’s guaranteed. But when you do, people will forgive you because you have a good academic pedigree, right? They’ll think, ‘Oh, this smart kid just got confused for a moment.'”
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
“But if you attend what people call a second-tier university? Then people see your mistakes as proof of your actual ability. They figure you were always stupid anyway.”
Tap, tap, tap.
A first-year student in the diagonal front row scowled and covered their ears.
I was already doing the same.
Please, god. Five minutes left.
Let me just read my book.
“A good academic pedigree means you don’t have to separately prove your intelligence and sincerity to strangers you meet! That’s what it means!”
What is this? Teachers like you show up to clubs wearing your school uniform and everything!
I’m too irritated to even focus on reading.
The adjacent class’s homeroom teacher spewed academic-pedigree-worshipping rhetoric right up until the bell rang, then slowly—finally—pulled the test papers from their envelope.
“Let’s see, let’s see… Is this the first-year class?”
“We’re second-year, sir.”
“Right, right. Now, the OMR Cards here… one, two, three, four, five…”
“Sir, it’s already been two minutes since the bell rang. Could you pass out the test papers first?”
Ga-eun, who couldn’t hold back any longer, spoke from behind me.
“Fine, fine. Your class gets theirs last.”
……
Trembling……
* * *
“Kang Da-hye’s here!”
“Kang Da-hye! What’s the answer to English question one, the short-answer part?!”
I’d stopped by the Teacher’s Office to grab the answer key and was heading back up to the classroom.
What’s cute about the girls in our class is that if they’re curious about answers, they could just go find the textbook themselves, right?
They all crowd outside the Teacher’s Office waiting for me, then come back up with me.
“Da-hye, the math question two answer is one, right?”
Asking things like that.
Ugh, chicks.
I opened the classroom door with the girls trailing behind me like a pied piper, scattering the cluster of Park Su-hwan and his crowd who’d been snickering among themselves. “Where are Jung Eun-seong and Seo Jae-gyeom?”
“A first-year got caught cheating, so they took him downstairs.”
“Took him downstairs?”
“Music was trying to take the answer key, and the first-year was resisting with brute force, but when that didn’t work, he threw a Computer Pen at Music. Then he suddenly started rolling around saying he couldn’t breathe because of Music.”
“?!”
“Anyway, Jae-gyeom said don’t wait for him—just start calling out the answers.”
“Got it.”
“Oh, Kang Da-hye! English question one!!!! What is it!!!!!!”
“My goodness. I’m going to lose my mind.”
Let me call out everyone’s answers first, and I’ll grade mine separately later.
I stood in front of the teacher’s desk and opened the answer key.
“Should I start with English?”
“Yes!”
“Wait! Wait wait wait wait!”
“Alright…”
While waiting for the kids to scramble to their seats, I checked math question twenty first—the one I’d been hopelessly confused about the entire test.

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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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