1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 90

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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 Regression
Episode 90
“Do Hae-jun, why are you sending me a message?”
You and I have nothing to say to each other, and even if you did have something to tell me—
How could you possibly have the nerve?
The sheer audacity of him acting as if everything that happened between us never occurred was infuriating.
“You remember we’re supposed to be under a contact ban, right?”
I asked in disbelief, but Do Hae-jun looked even more baffled. His eyes wide with indignation, he opened his mouth to speak.
“That’s because you—!”
“What?”
“Da-hye, what?”
“What’s going on?”
Students from another class who happened to be passing by stopped in their tracks when they spotted Do Hae-jun and me standing together.
Deciding that the sexual harasser who watched BJ streams in class was bothering me, they swarmed over and surrounded me in a protective circle.
“What did this creep say to you?”
They looked ready to beat him senseless all over again if that were the case.
Do Hae-jun, small and slight as he was, completely crumpled under the girls’ fierce glares.
“What are you guys doing over there?”
“Oh, it’s just Do Hae-jun.”
“What did this guy do now?”
With the girls gathered around, boys passing by took notice. Some of them were already cracking their knuckles with hungry grins.
‘He’s basically become the official punching bag.’
I should probably tell them to stop, but I didn’t feel like it.
I sighed and spoke up.
“It’s nothing. He wanted to ask me something, but I guess he thought it’d be awkward to ask in class.”
“Ask you what.”
“Exactly. What nerve does he have?”
“Tell him to figure it out himself.”
“Yeah, seriously. Anyway, it’s all settled, so let’s go.”
I thanked them and linked arms with the friend standing beside me, walking away. As I headed toward the stairs, I glanced back over my shoulder.
Left alone, Do Hae-jun was glaring at me with a disgruntled expression.
‘Why does he look like that?’
I gave him one final warning.
“Do Hae-jun. Don’t send me any more messages. If you do it even once more, I’m reporting you for violating the contact ban.”
Feeling uneasy, I returned to the classroom.
“Kang Da!”
“Da-hye!”
“Good morning!”
I greeted my friends and headed to the seat next to Lee Seo-jun, who was already familiar by now. He offered a slightly bashful greeting.
“Hi.”
“Hey. Were you studying?”
“Yeah…”
“I should get to it too.”
Another happy day was beginning, one where I could actually study.
I hummed to myself as I picked out a problem book, when Lee Seo-jun quietly asked from beside me.
“Did you see the sports day photos that got posted?”
“No? Where were they posted?”
“The school homepage.”
“You actually go on that site…?”
I asked in surprise, and Lee Seo-jun’s face flushed red.
“A-a lot of people check it…”
“Really…?”
Guess I was the only one who didn’t know.
“Are there pictures of me?”
“There were a few. Want me to show you?”
“Yeah.”
I leaned over the cellphone he’d placed on the desk. With his face now flushed all the way to his neck, Lee Seo-jun accessed the school homepage.
When I looked over, he kept fumbling nervously, so I deliberately looked away for a moment before—
“Here. Look whenever you’re ready.”
“Thanks.”
I accepted the cellphone from Lee Seo-jun.
The first image showed Seo Jae-gyeom leaning against a flag planted on the ground.
The next photo was Seo Jae-gyeom entering with a slightly irritated expression after the hand-pushing game ended.
The next was Jung Eun-seong sitting in the bleachers before the relay race, spilling water as he drank.
Why would he even take a photo like this? And it looked like he’d zoomed in way too much.
Beneath the photos were download counts listed.
Since the photos were posted on the School Homepage, you needed to log in to view or download them—yet the download count exceeded the entire student body. How was that possible?
“Seo Jae-gyeom’s photos are the same… Wow, the one where he’s shirtless has downloads in the thousands.”
At this point, every student at school probably had at least one photo each of Jung Eun-seong and Seo Jae-gyeom in their gallery.
‘Both of them were already popular, but now they’re just… completely off the charts.’
I could confidently say that Jung Eun-seong, an Idol Trainee, acting stoic like a gym-obsessed athlete, and Seo Jae-gyeom, a brilliant student, acting like an idol, had contributed significantly to their explosive popularity.
“Next to Seo Jae-gyeom showing off his abs, someone downloaded my photo with my mouth hanging open sixty-seven times.”
I looked absolutely foolish.
“Our class teacher also got over a hundred downloads.”
When would people stop calling him a teacher? He wasn’t a teacher anymore.
Sure, the teacher had a name.
But did I really need to learn the name of someone who’d already finished their internship and returned to university?
What I needed to memorize right now were names from modern Korean history—people like Choi Ik-hyun, Kim Won-bong, Nam Ja-hyun—not the teacher’s name.
Since we’re on the subject, let me review modern history for a bit.
“Thanks for showing me.”
“Sure!”
I returned the cellphone to Lee Seo-jun and opened a blank notebook.
I’d write down events in chronological order from the 1800s through 1945. If I missed even one, I’d forfeit today’s lunch—the raspberry macaron they were serving—to Se-in, who was over there munching on a triangle kimbap.
I steeled my resolve and gripped my mechanical pencil.
By the time I’d written up to 1919.
“Kang Da-hye.”
“Huh!”
I shot a sharp glare at whoever had broken my concentration.
Seo Jae-gyeom, who’d come straight to my seat after arriving at school and hadn’t even taken off his school bag, flinched when he caught my stare.
“You were concentrating? Sorry.”
“It’s fine. What’s up?”
“What are you doing over break?”
“Studying.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Not going anywhere?”
“Nowhere.”
My family isn’t the type that flies somewhere every vacation like yours does. Mom works all year without a single day off, and I never leave the neighborhood during breaks.
Don’t make me feel the wealth gap—just go.
“Well, listen.”
What was he trying to say, building it up like this? I looked up, puzzled.
Seo Jae-gyeom, squirming awkwardly in a way that didn’t suit him, blurted out the question.
“Would you want to do private tutoring with me over break?”
* * *
The previous evening, at Jae-gyeom’s house.
“Son, Ji-su asked your mother if you’d be interested in private tutoring with her over break.”
Jae-gyeom, who’d been scraping fish with his chopsticks, deeply frowned.
He’d already rejected Han Ji-su’s tutoring proposal days ago. She’d come all the way to his classroom to pull him out and ask, so he’d shot her down cleanly.
But then she went and told his mother about it?
“Why would she tell Mom something like that?”
“Probably because she was worried you’d refuse.”
“That’s exactly why—if you think you’re going to be rejected, you shouldn’t even bring it up. Why go tell Mom about it?”
And besides, he’d already rejected her.
At Jae-gyeom’s prickly response, his mother across the table opened her eyes wide.
“Why is he being so sensitive?”
“I said no.”
“Why? You seemed to like Ji-su fine before.”
“That was then.”
Both he and I already do enough hagwon and tutoring—why would he need more tutoring? Jae-gyeom grumbled. His mother laughed and jabbed back at him.
“Right, you’re already doing enough hagwon and tutoring, so why aren’t your grades improving?”
“…….”
‘You won’t get into Korean University. Your music scores are abysmal.’
She’d struck a nerve.
His mother pressed on, breaking the sudden silence that had fallen over Jae-gyeom.
“So Da-hye came first again this term? She’s lucky to be born in this day and age. If she’d been born thirty years earlier, she wouldn’t have even graduated high school on time—she’d have ended up at a factory. Given her family’s circumstances.”
“Why would you say something like that?”
Jae-gyeom’s frown deepened as he set down his chopsticks with a sharp clink.
“What?”
“If she did well, you should acknowledge it. Why deliberately belittle her like that?”
There was so much more to say about her than just her family’s circumstances.
About how hard she works, how much she cares for her friends, how genuinely beautiful she looks when she smiles. Those were the things worth mentioning.
“If she came first without drowning herself in private tutoring and hagwons like I did, that’s something to admire. So why not just say she’s amazing and leave it at that? Why drag up things from thirty years ago?”
“Listen here. Did I make that up? Her family really is struggling financially. No matter how bright she is, what can her mother actually do for her? She has to figure everything out on her own from start to finish. I’m just saying this because it frustrates me.”
“Stop talking.”
Da-hye had thanked his mother for her help.
He doubted that gratitude would survive hearing this.
She was already aware that his mother spoke about her this way. She’d picked up on it.
The thought made his appetite vanish.
Clack.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m not eating.”
From behind Jae-gyeom as he climbed the stairs to the second floor, his mother muttered in exasperation.
“I’m telling you, he’s been acting strange lately.”
Jae-gyeom closed the door to his room and collapsed onto his bed, covering his eyes with the back of his hand. He lay there thinking.
“Seo Jae-gyeom, are you listening? You’re being weird!”
It didn’t bother him anymore. He’d been hearing it too often these days.
“Haaaaah….”
Jae-gyeom let out a long, drawn-out sigh, then abruptly sat up.
“Seo Jae-gyeom, where are you going?”
“PC Bang.”

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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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