1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 65

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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
Episode 65
The answer is number 3?
Yeah, that’s right.
I wrote number 3 too.
With a noticeably lighter heart, I leaned my elbows on the teacher’s desk and bent forward.
“I’m going to read off the English answers. Number 1 is 1….”
“Number 1?!”
“Oh, just hold on a second!”
“Number 2 is 4, number 3 is 3, number 4 is 3….”
“Number 3?!”
“What do you mean number 3?!”
“Number 4 is answer 3?!”
“There’s no way it’s number 3?!”
“Look, just let me finish reading them all, please!”
“Yeah, we’ll talk after.”
“Da-hye! What did you put for number 4?”
I flashed a quick ‘4’ with my fingers to show the answer, then continued reading.
“Number 5 is 1….”
“Ugh!”
I’d barely made it through half of one subject and the chaos was already unbearable.
Why are you all making such a fuss? You didn’t study, so of course you’re getting plenty wrong.
Just as I finished reading off all the English answers, Jung Eun-seong and Seo Jae-gyeom returned.
They came in together but entered through different doors—one through the front, one through the back. It was obvious from the way they came in that they hadn’t exchanged a single word the whole time.
Seo Jae-gyeom spoke up.
“The English answer key was printed wrong. Number 4 isn’t 3, it’s 4.”
“See!”
“Oh man, I marked number 1!”
“You idiot, why would number 1 even be there?”
“Nooo!”
In the midst of screams and curses, I finally finished calling out all the answers.
“The homeroom teacher said there’s no closing ceremony today. Go study. He says our class absolutely has to be first in Politics.”
“First place? That’s impossible for us.”
Get lost.
Hehehehe….
“Jae-gyeom, wanna hit up the PC Bang?”
“You crazy?”
“Huh, I give up.”
While the others fussed around, I straightened up my desk and gathered the answer keys. I called over Seo Jae-gyeom and Jung Eun-seong, who’d arrived late and hadn’t graded their English yet.
“You two can check your English answers together first. I’ll be scoring math.”
I needed to find a quiet corner alone…. It was nothing really, but my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
I took a deep breath for no good reason and headed to my seat. Bang Eun-ji, crumpling up her test paper and tossing it into the trash with hunched shoulders, looked up at me with a mad glint in her eye.
“Da-hye, would you want us to stick around?”
“N-no, really, it’s fine….”
“Okay, okay.”
Later then!
After waving the girls off, I opened up the answer key.
Thump-thump.
And the result was.
…….
Obviously.
Perfect.
Unbelievable….
Honestly, because of question 20, I’d thought there was a chance I might not get a perfect score.
Soon I checked my English answers too against the key Seo Jae-gyeom had handed me. At this point, it was just confirming what I already knew. One hundred points.
Hehehehe.
The tension broke, and a laugh spilled out.
Math… you gave me such a hard time, but honestly, if you hadn’t been there, my test would’ve felt hollow.
I quietly murmured a line from a movie I hadn’t watched yet and bit my lip.
Hehehehe.
Yes!
One mountain conquered.
I pressed down my cheeks threatening to burst outward and tucked the Computer Sign Pen into my pocket.
No bags to gather, no reason to linger—just head home.
I turned on my Cellphone and looked up. Only three of us remained in the Classroom: me, Jung Eun-seong, and Seo Jae-gyeom.
“Kang Da-hye.”
Seo Jae-gyeom, who kept fussing with his School Bag without actually leaving, called out to me.
“Wait a second.”
Jung Eun-seong got there first.
“Jung Eun-seong.”
I approached him at the desk he was wiping down. I meant to thank him, but he spoke before I could.
“You get them all right?”
“Yeah. How about you?”
“Well….”
Jung Eun-seong rolled his eyes and whispered.
“Thirty-two in math.”
?
“You solved them?”
“I just guessed….”
“Oh….”
Next semester, I won’t be seeing his face in the advanced math class.
“Through gradual progress… let’s try to raise that score.”
Hang in there. I patted his shoulder awkwardly. Though Jung Eun-seong didn’t actually look that discouraged.
“English?”
“Eighty-eight.”
“Mm.”
At least he didn’t crash completely.
Jung Eun-seong grumbled.
“Why didn’t ‘Love Start Begin’ show up? That’s the only thing I memorized.”
“Well….”
I patted his shoulder one more time, just as awkwardly.
Close beside me, Jung Eun-seong smelled not of his usual cologne but of the Pink Liquid Soap used in the Restroom.
His hastily dried hair stuck up in every direction, and he stood out starkly in his summer uniform alone.
I didn’t know why it felt so strange.
Watching my hesitation, Jung Eun-seong asked.
“Going home now?”
“Yeah. Stop by home, get cleaned up, then head to the hospital. What about you?”
“Same. Gotta get home and wash up quick.”
“…thanks. Really, without you today….”
“Nothing to thank me for. You taught me stuff too.”
“Well, that’s….”
When we’d said “let’s study together,” it was already right before the exam, so we’d barely studied together at all—just a few times during breaks.
Realizing the same thing, Jung Eun-seong laughed softly.
“Anyway, we did meet outside before the exam.”
“Right. Um… tell the person who picked you up today that I’m grateful too.”
“He won’t mind.”
“Why, when he debuts I’ll be his first fan….”
I stopped mid-sentence.
‘Wait, that person….’
He’s debuting with Jung Eun-seong, isn’t he?
That….
Illegal Gambling.
* * *
You really can’t judge a person by their appearance.
Someone who seemed so kind and gentle and pleasant right now.
A few years later, tangled with Macau’s Organized Crime Gang, running illegal gambling operations worth billions and currency exchange fraud, drowning in debts double what he’d earned, borrowing money through lies from the people around him—a criminal. That’s what he’d become.
By then there’d be no more gentle, doe-eyed youth. Only a man with bloated, hedonistic features and lips stained purple.
‘Didn’t Jung Eun-seong lend him money and never get it back?’
I remember he’d been taken in by the lie—that his parents had been defrauded and he needed cash urgently.
‘No wonder Jung Eun-seong lent him money so easily.’
So that’s why—he was the hyung who struggled with me before debut.
At this point, wouldn’t it be better not to debut from that nest of vipers at all?
But wait, is it actually right that I’m debuting now?
Politics—I got every question. Modern and contemporary history—every single one. Literature—perfect. These thoughts wouldn’t leave my head right up until the last day of the Midterm Exam.
As I organized my desk, lost in contemplation, someone tapped my shoulder sharply.
“Kang Da-hye, you made the list!”
“Huh? Oh….”
Made what list?
The class rankings from 1st to 30th in school that the homeroom teacher had announced.
After the last exam ended, he’d dragged out the time by making us pick people for Sports Day instead of letting everyone rush home, and now he’d finally posted it.
So here we are.
A friend who’d left saying they were going to the Restroom came back through the front door and shouted, sending kids scrambling to their feet and pouring out of the Classroom.
“Must be nice being smart—you know your ranking before your name tag even comes out~”
“Shut it, Do Ha-jun.”
“Hey, don’t push me!”
While the others sprinted like they were headed to the School Cafeteria at lunch, I walked slowly.
Why?
Because I already know what my ranking is.
‘I got everything right.’
So automatically, I’m first.
I said it myself—there’s no need to compare with others. I just need to do well.
“Nervous?”
I asked Woo Do-yeon, who was walking beside me with a sour expression, and she shook her head.
“Not nervous—annoyed. Are they really allowed to just broadcast everyone’s grades like this?”
“They shouldn’t be.”
It probably violates the law, I added, and Woo Do-yeon looked at me.
“Does this violate the law?”
“Probably.”
Personal Information Protection Act.
“I see…….”
As Woo Do-yeon nodded, Kim Ga-eun spoke up beside her.
“This is so annoying. If my name’s on the Bulletin Board this time but not next time, everyone’s going to know I bombed the test. It’s hard enough that my grade dropped.”
“And they’re broadcasting people’s rankings going up and down in real time.”
“‘Don’t want to be embarrassed, then study’—is shame really the right tool to force people to study? And anyway, why only post the top 30?”
“So nobody cares about the ones who struggle, I guess.”
While we grumbled, we reached the Bulletin Board.
Among the already-crowded students, Han Ji-su, who’d been checking the Bulletin Board at the very front, turned to look at me.
Before I could even say anything to Han Ji-su, Bang Eun-ji rushed over and slapped my back hard.
“Did you see?! Did you see?!”
“I can’t see anything while you’re hitting me…….”
Why is she so happy about this.
“There are too many people—I can’t see it.”
“Want me to lift you up?”
I glared at Seo Jae-gyeom, who was joking beside me.
“Do you have the strength to lift me?”
“I’m a guy.”
“Yeah, okay.”
I dismissed him and rose up on my tiptoes.
Time to see the result I already knew.
[Midterm Exam Rankings: Grade 2]
(Name/Average)
1. Kang Da-hye (100)
2. Han Ji-su (99.6)
5. Woo Do-yeon (97)
13. Seo Jae-gyeom (94)
29. Kim Ga-eun (91.2)
30. Lee Seo-jun (90.9)

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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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