1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 8

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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 of Entire School Hides Her Regression
Episode 8
“What I said isn’t a curse—it’s a prophecy. Please, think before you live. Some choices haunt you for life.”
God. That’s terrifying.
I’m twenty-nine years old, and Song Yeoreum still scares me. No wonder nobody ever stood up to her back then—I can’t even blame them now.
I wiped my cold, sweaty palms secretly on my skirt.
Trembling. Trembling.
‘So this is what it means to not be able to ignore the atmosphere.’
I know they’re not gangsters, not conglomerates, just high school delinquents—nothing at all. But being trapped inside the same school walls with them, I find myself terrified anyway.
I clenched my shaking hands and forced my chin up.
“You think this time will last forever, don’t you? One year. That’s all. And then nobody will care about you because they’ll be too busy studying.”
When that comes, the wind won’t be at your backs anymore, and you’ll get swept up in it too, wandering between cram schools and study halls until two in the morning, desperate to get into college.
But by then, regret will be too late.
Do you remember that college student who walked up at graduation day without a shred of shame, bragging about how he’d take responsibility for her, cracking eggs on his pregnant girlfriend’s belly while laughing?
Three months after the baby was born, he ran off to the military.
She’s raising it alone. She couldn’t even go to the college she got into.
I cut contact with everyone from back then, but I still heard about it.
And it’s infuriating that I can’t spoil any of this for them.
“There’s a saying—don’t even touch a dog while it’s eating. And you want to do this to a girl who just came back from the School Infirmary this morning? Please, get your heads on straight. You’ve got about 400 days left until Teen Parents airs.”
I stopped talking because Song Yeoreum’s expression had turned genuinely vicious.
“Wow.”
Song Yeoreum stared at the ceiling with a bitter laugh, then turned to look at me.
“Yeah, you’re not gonna work.”
As Song Yeoreum raised her hand with a smirk, Do Yeon stood up from her seat.
“Stop.”
Song Yeoreum, as if waiting for her cue, shoved Do Yeon’s shoulder.
“Stop what? You’ve been sitting there with your mouth shut this whole time, and now that you’ve got one total loser on your side, you act like the world revolves around you?”
I think her mouth must’ve been full of garbage.
Song Yeoreum spewed out curses and raised her hand again.
But.
“Hey. Seriously, stop.”
This time, Seo Jaekyeom stepped in.
Seo Jaekyeom, who’d been sitting with friends by the window, strode over in long strides. He wedged himself between me and Song Yeoreum, forcibly grabbing her raised hand and pulling it down. His expression was thick with irritation and exhaustion.
“Song Yeoreum. I don’t like noise while I’m eating, okay?”
“I wasn’t making noise—Kang Dahye was—!”
“Right. So be quiet.”
“No, Kang Dahye was the one—!”
“It’s loud.”
“Dammit.”
“What.”
He wasn’t taking sides or trying to stop anything—he just genuinely looked annoyed.
Faced with Seo Jaekyeom’s exhausted demeanor, Song Yeoreum could only mutter curses under her breath and say nothing back.
Seeing that, Do Yeon let out a sigh and picked up her barely-touched tray before leaving quickly. I hurried after her.
“Hey, where are you—!”
“Song Yeoreum. I said keep it down.”
“Seo Jaekyeom, why are you butting in all of a sudden!”
“Because you’re loud.”
Whether boy or girl, nobody can move against Seo Jaekyeom. I don’t know what wind blew through him (probably just because it was loud), but I was grateful he took our side anyway.
As we left the Cafeteria, my eyes met Ji Su’s, and I mouthed silently:
‘Sorry!’
I’ll buy you Chocolate Milk later! Really!
Do Yeon and I ended up not at the Wisteria Bench but at the Stands instead.
Do Yeon had been heading toward the bench, but when she saw groups of kids gathered there, she changed direction and sat down at the Stands instead.
Following her lead cautiously, I quickly sat down beside her.
Do Yeon, who didn’t even glance my way, spoke.
“Do you know what I hate most when I eat alone?”
“What?”
“Kids watching me.”
“Ah.”
“It feels like they’ve already written it all over me—that I’m being ostracized, that I have no friends.”
“…….”
“Why did you help me?”
Do Yeon was asking why I’d stepped in—knowing that by doing so, I’d become a target just like her, and yet I’d helped anyway.
She rolled her eyes.
“…Because it benefits me too?”
If I’m going to live miserably for the next eleven years anyway?
That’s why I spent all that time wondering if I’d done something wrong to deserve this karma.
Whether I’d committed some sin and was paying the price for it.
And every single time, your name came to mind first.
I always regretted not taking your side.
Whether it was God or something else, they must have rewound time to let me live better…….
“So I’m not going to do things I’ll regret anymore.”
“What?”
Do Yeon frowned, not understanding.
“It’s nothing. Um… there’s no grand reason, really. I just thought it was the right thing to do, so I did it.”
I saw the face of Do Yeon, who would be dead in two months.
Despite everything that happened, I survived and reached twenty-nine, but your clock stopped forever at eighteen.
Because none of us had the courage to act.
If even one person had done things differently, everything might have changed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t take your side sooner.”
I knew what was right and what was wrong, but I looked away out of fear.
I offered an apology that came far too late—an apology for pretending not to see your suffering.
Do Yeon, who’d been staring directly at me, asked:
“Why are you crying?”
“Just…. Sniff. I’m sorry.”
“Did you ostracize me? Why are you the one apologizing?”
“Everyone should be apologizing to you.”
“They’re not.”
Seeing me sniffling, Do Yeon pulled a tissue from her pocket and handed it to me. I made a nasal honking sound as I took it. A regression user’s dignity was in tatters—crying in front of someone eleven years my junior.
“Not everyone thinks like Kang Dahye. Some kids have no real connection with me, but they deliberately bump into my shoulder in the hallway. Ever since I became someone ‘okay’ to mistreat.”
“Sniff… What? Are they insane?”
“They see their chance. They didn’t like me much before, but now that I’m getting bad-mouthed anyway, why not?”
“Have you thought about reporting it as school violence? I mean…… Song Yeoreum and her friends.”
Your mother—I think she’s a prosecutor, or a judge? Someone in the legal field, anyway.
It was something I learned after Do Yeon died, when the police came to school.
But Do Yeon shook her head.
“I don’t want to disappoint my parents.”
“They won’t be disappointed over something like that.”
“I know. But I just… I don’t want to tell them. That their daughter, who they’re so proud of, can’t adapt at school. That everyone else is fine but I’m the one who got pushed out. How do I say that?”
“I understand.”
I’ve felt something similar before.
Everyone else got in, but only my mother’s daughter failed again.
Everyone else managed it, but I was the only one who couldn’t. In moments like that, your voice just won’t work.
“But Do Yeon, that’s not your fault.”
“…….”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Not a single thing. You’re just someone who suffered unfairly.”
“…….”
“You don’t need to thank me for taking your side today. I was just doing what was right. You don’t need to watch my mood, or force yourself to do things you hate because of me.”
“…Like what?”
“Well…. Say I asked to borrow your shoes, and you didn’t want to lend them…… but then you forced yourself to lend them anyway because you were worried I wouldn’t be your friend if you said no?”
“Oh, you heard about that.”
Do Yeon laughed about the time I’d refused her request for shoes and gotten cursed out for it. I stopped crying and laughed too.
“No, I mean, you can ask! But when someone says no, you should accept it and back off. What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Exactly. It was absolutely ridiculous.”
“Even a real beggar like me would let it go. What’s her problem?”
I don’t usually ask people to lend me things. If I lose something borrowed, I can’t afford to replace it. Laughing softly, Do Yeon and I sat with the March sunlight pouring down between us.
It was cool light still, but unmistakably the light of an approaching warmth.
“It’s not that I mind eating alone. It’s that the other kids seeing me eat alone—that’s what I hate.”
“But you never skipped meals. You came down every time to eat. You already won there.”

“Why would I starve myself? For whose benefit?”
“Right!”
“I’m not dating my teacher.”
“Of course not! Are you insane? What could you possibly be lacking that you’d need to see some middle-aged man!”
“I have plenty of clothes. If you want to borrow any later, just ask.”
“It’s okay. I have my School Uniform.”
“You wear your School Uniform even when you go out after school?”
“Yeah, I’ve basically taxidermied myself in it.”
“Our uniform isn’t even that pretty.”
“Still, I paid good money for this thing and I only get to wear it for three years. Might as well get my money’s worth.”
“Three years is a long time, isn’t it?”
“I’ve been carrying the same Bag since elementary school.”
“…When’s your birthday? I’ll buy you a Bag as a gift.”
Two of them.
Do Yeon declared it.
That was Do Yeon’s way of saying thank you.
* * *
“Next period is math, right?”
“Yeah. Since we’re both in Class A, we can just grab our books and go together.”
“Sounds good.”
“But Do Yeon, I think I might drop down to Class C next semester…….”
“What are you talking about? You’re the Top Student of the Entire School.”
“Right now, anyway.”
As Do Yeon and I chatted casually down the Hallway, eyes shot toward us from everywhere.
I ignored them and deliberately flashed a brighter smile as I pushed open the door to Class 1-A Classroom, where math Class A was held.
Creak.
And my eyes met Seo Jaekyeom’s directly—he was leaning against Ji Su’s desk, laughing down at her as she worked on her assignments.

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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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