1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 88

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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
Chapter 88
One day, Bang Eun-ji of Grade 2, Class 6 experienced something that completely upended how she saw herself.
It happened while she was admitted to the hospital with a head injury.
After dealing with some woman who’d said, ‘I’m grateful you testified, but don’t try to befriend my daughter at school,’ her mood had soured so thoroughly that she was lying in bed fuming.
Then an unexpected visitor arrived.
“Bang Eun-ji.”
It was Kang Da-hye.
The only person besides her boyfriend who’d come to visit her in the hospital.
What Kang Da-hye said next split Bang Eun-ji’s head wide open.
“I’m throwing this away.”
Kang Da-hye pinched the adult magazine her boyfriend had given her between two fingers and was heading for the door when she stopped, leaving behind words that didn’t sound like her.
Words she’d wrestled with saying, weighing them carefully before speaking them aloud.
“Your boyfriend, right?”
“What about him?”
“Is that loser seriously the best you can do?”
……
“I know I’m overstepping, but please, while you’re resting, think about it one more time. Is a college student who dates an eighteen-year-old really someone decent by any objective measure?”
Are you seeing him just to fill the void in your self-worth that’s eroded since you stopped being friends with Song Yeor-eum, and the loneliness that never gets satisfied?
“I’m saying this because I think you’ve got the brains for it. Your judgment is good.”
“…Me?”
“Yeah.”
Kang Da-hye replied curtly, tossed the magazine far from her body, and left the hospital room.
A moment later, Bang Eun-ji heard the sound of it hitting a trash bin—Bang!
Hearing that sound, Bang Eun-ji cursed.
“Why’s she trash-talking my boyfriend? She doesn’t even know him.”
She’s crossing a line.
But strangely, the corners of her mouth twitched upward.
‘She’s worried about me.’
And.
‘She said my judgment is good.’
Her grades were in the basement, her friendships a mess.
The most common things she heard at home were ‘Well, if you’re like that, then of course,’ and ‘Again? Seriously, you’re just a ghost that eats up money.’
Even her own mother, who’d given birth to her, only ever complimented her on things like how her skin looked good despite losing a little weight, or whether she needed to slim down more—never once saying she was smart.
This was the first time anyone had ever told her judgment was good.
And somehow, hearing that for the first time felt wonderful.
Really?
Am I actually good at judging things?
She remembered it well and mentioned it to her boyfriend when he came by that afternoon.
“Aw, come on, that’s not true~”
Her boyfriend, searching around for where the magazine had gone, laughed it off with a dismissive wave.
“…What do you mean it’s not?”
“Honestly, you’re not that bright, are you? Eun-ji, what’s your rank in the class?”
“…Then why are you dating me?”
Up to that point, Bang Eun-ji hadn’t felt any real problem. Just a small sting of having her compliment negated.
“Because I’m pretty?”
If her boyfriend had agreed right then, she would have laughed it off with an ‘oh, whatever’ and moved on.
But her boyfriend denied it again.
“Nah, you’re not that pretty, honestly. If anything, you’re on the plain side.”
He said if she lost weight, she might be pretty—but not now—as he pulled juice from the refrigerator and drank. Bang Eun-ji, now genuinely hurt, pressed harder.
“Then why date me? Because I’m young?”
“Eun-ji, eighteen isn’t young enough to brag about, is it? I’ve dated younger girls than you.”
……
“God, where’d that magazine go? I know I left it here. Did you throw it away?”
As she watched him suck out a piece of aloe gel lodged between his teeth with an audible pop, she couldn’t help but think of what Kang Da-hye had said.
‘Your judgment is good.’
On one side, a boyfriend who told her she wasn’t smart, wasn’t pretty, wasn’t even young—reducing her to nothing. On the other, someone who didn’t even like her much but still said, ‘You’ve got the brains for it; you can think for yourself.’
Which one was real affection?
And Kang Da-hye doesn’t even like me that much.
So what does that make my boyfriend, who’s worse than someone who doesn’t even like me?
What the hell is this?
“Why aren’t you answering? Did I upset you?”
“…Oppa.”
Bang Eun-ji, who had made the decision on impulse, watched her boyfriend still moping.
“Let’s break up.”
“What?”
It had been an impulsive choice, but somehow it felt liberating.
“Get lost, you old fool.”
You’re the kind of guy who can’t be bothered to build me up, only to tear me down—and I’m cutting you out of my life.
School felt better than she’d expected when she returned.
Apologizing to kids who looked at her like she was an insect was embarrassing and shameful, but the awkwardness passed quickly.
She’d apologized to Woo Do-yeon too, and Woo Do-yeon had said this to her.
‘I don’t want to forgive you. When I think about what you and Song Yeor-eum did to me, I still get furious.’
‘Yeah… I understand.’
‘But I’ll accept your apology. I’m tired of wasting energy on you anyway. …We can never be friends again, but we could maybe be something that’s not enemies either.’
That was more than enough.
Contrary to her secret worries, Song Yeor-eum never showed up at her house to assault her or anything like that.
Through the grapevine, she heard that Song Yeor-eum’s parents had lost their jobs and were selling the house to move, that their store had closed, that she was being ostracized at her new school.
‘I didn’t even know Song Yeor-eum’s mom ran a store.’
She wasn’t sure if all those rumors were true, but either way, it was good that Song Yeor-eum had too much else to worry about to pay attention to her.
‘I really did make the right call cutting her off.’
Yeah. I have good judgment, she thought.
That compliment—the one she’d first heard from Kang Da-hye—kept coming back to her whenever she had a spare moment.
Once, she’d asked Kang Da-hye about it.
‘But why did you think I had good judgment?’
She wanted to know the specific reason behind that compliment that had made her feel so good.
Kang Da-hye’s answer was simple.
‘Because when you felt something was wrong, you didn’t waste time on sunk costs—you just got out.’
‘Sunk costs? Like double eyelids?’
‘…Look it up later. And.’
‘Yeah?’
‘I thought you never read a single page of anything, but you actually do read books.’
‘Books? Oh… that. Ugh.’
That embarrassing thing?
‘It doesn’t matter what book. The point is you tried to educate yourself to become better.’
She was wrapping it up that nicely?
“Huh.”
She’d grumbled that it was a simpler reason than she’d thought, but the corners of Bang Eun-ji’s mouth had already curled up again.
‘Kang Da-hye must like me more than my own mom does.’
Which is why she couldn’t stand it now when someone was badmouthing Kang Da-hye.
“Guys don’t like girls who are that headstrong.”
It was after the sports day ended.
She’d agreed to teach some new friends how to do makeup at one of their houses. Bang Eun-ji, brimming with excitement, had stepped by the lockers with her new friends to grab her pouch when it happened.
“Hey, check those two out.”
Friend 1 stopped, having spotted something. Jang Ji-won and Park Su-hwan were walking through the empty hallway with their arms around each other. Friend 2, recognizing them, covered her mouth with her hand.
“Are those two dating?”
“No way.”
“He’s crazy… apparently he’s obsessed with guys?”
Her friends gaped in shock—how could you date someone like that? But Bang Eun-ji’s attention had drifted elsewhere.
To what Jang Ji-won and Park Su-hwan were actually saying.
Their conversation specifically.
“Man, I was just caught off guard back then—that’s why I couldn’t fight back! Honestly, it didn’t even hurt. All showmanship, totally sloppy. You can tell the guy doesn’t know how to fight just by looking at him, Jung Eun-seong.”
“Yeah. Still, Eun-seong went too far. Just started throwing punches out of nowhere.”
“The guy’s an absolute bastard. Must never learned any manners ’cause his parents died early.”
Park Su-hwan chuckled darkly—”What are your parents doing! ‘We’re dead!’ Hehehehe”—adding fuel to the mockery.
“I thought Kang Da-hye was smart, but she just falls all over herself for some pretty face who treats her half-decent… has no idea she’s being used. Helping him cheat on the performance assessment, letting him copy during tests. But it’s not like he’ll ever date her anyway.”
“Kang Da-hye helped Eun-seong cheat?!”
“Pretty much? I can’t say for certain, but that’s basically what happened.”
“That’s insane! How did you know that, Su-hwan?”
“You can just tell when you pay attention.”
“She’s sharp, all right. I mean, didn’t she say Seo Jae-gyeom dumped her too?”
“And Seo Jae-gyeom’s even worse. Why would someone that accomplished go out with Kang Da-hye? That’s textbook using her and moving on.”
“So then.”
“Right. Kang Da-hye ends up a single mother raising a kid in a goshiwon.”
“…wait, are you guys talking about Da-hye from Grade 2, Class 6?”
Bang Eun-ji’s three friends exchanged looks of disbelief.
“How would she even help with cheating? They take separate tests for boys and girls anyway…….”
“And if Kang Da-hye helped Jung Eun-seong, he would’ve at least made the top thirty.”
“They’re insane.”
Yeah, they are.
Insane.
“Those idiots….”
Bang Eun-ji, her face flushed with anger, moved to act at once.
“Hey!”

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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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