1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 92

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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 92
“Why!”
Sheesh, you startled me.
“Lower your voice.”
Everyone’s staring at us.
“Why… why…!”
“Why are you making such a fuss…….”
What kind of situation is this.
Could it be that in my past life I made a promise with Seo Jae-gyeom like “Let’s definitely take tutoring together if we meet in the next life!” and I just don’t remember?
That’s how betrayed Seo Jae-gyeom looked.
You know that video on YouTube where someone tells their dog they’re going for a walk and then takes them to the vet instead? The dog’s expression was exactly like that.
The look of someone about to cry out “Et tu, Brute!”
But.
‘It’s uncomfortable.’
I know Seo Jae-gyeom’s Mother won’t take money from me.
I know that tutoring fees worth hundreds of thousands won—money my family has to carefully budget for—are pocket change for her, and I also know she’d think it looks bad to even accept that money from me.
But tutoring is expensive, and group tutoring is even more expensive. Is it right for me to tag along without paying a single won?
Shouldn’t I at least bring a box of fruit?
The fruit my mom carefully picked and sent will probably be treated like an unwanted burden at Seo Jae-gyeom’s house…….
It’s not just the tutoring fees—Seo Jae-gyeom’s Mother herself makes me uncomfortable.
‘How could I feel comfortable around someone my mother calls “Madam”?’
The kind of feeling where the hierarchy between parents affects their child too…is what I thought this morning when I left Seo Jae-gyeom’s KakaoTalk message on read.
Whatever. Either way, it’s uncomfortable.
And most importantly.
“I actually decided to take the summer intensive course again.”
I’d decided not to take it this time and hadn’t even told my mom, but yesterday she said to me.
‘Why didn’t you sign up for that summer intensive course you mentioned?’
‘Oh, that. I just decided not to take it.’
‘Why.’
‘Just… didn’t seem like I needed it.’
‘What do you mean you don’t need it. You praised your math teacher for teaching well. You said it helped a lot.’
‘Well…….’
‘You need to work hard. I can’t do anything if your grades drop. I don’t have money to put you through a repeat year.’
‘I know….’
So tactless, bringing up a repeat year like that.
In the end, I decided to take the intensive course. Not all of them—just math.
At my words, Seo Jae-gyeom’s expression of betrayal doubled.
“You’re taking the intensive course?!”
“Yeah.”
“But you said you weren’t!”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why!”
Was I not supposed to change it…?
“Do you always change your mind like this?!”
“I’m only changing it this one time…….”
“How can you just change your mind!”
Why is he like this.
Anyone watching would think I’d undergone some kind of religious conversion.
“If you want to do tutoring, then you do it…. You said you’re working hard to get into Korea University.”
I was trying to soothe the pouting Seo Jae-gyeom when someone behind us knocked over a pen holder with a clatter.
Jung Eun-seong, who’d set down his school bag in the seat diagonally behind me, was staring expressionlessly at his overturned pencil case.
“When did you get here?”
“Earlier.”
A sullen expression.
Others would think it was his usual blank face, but I know better.
This is.
‘A displeased expression.’
He must be in a bad mood from seeing Seo Jae-gyeom up close all morning.
Jung Eun-seong picked up the pens and stood, and I handed him the milk he’d brought with a plastic straw stuck in it. As he took it without thinking, I spoke to Seo Jae-gyeom.
“Thanks for thinking about it. Anyway, I’m not doing it.”
“But why…!”
“Hmph.”
“…All right. If you change your mind, let me know. Understood?”
So pitiful. Seo Jae-gyeom shuffled back to his seat with his shoulders drooping. Jung Eun-seong, watching him go, asked.
“What did he want?”
“Oh. He wanted to do private lessons together over break.”
“And you turned him down?”
“Yeah. I’m taking a special lecture instead.”
—Do Hae-jun: Special lecture? But I’m free lol
…This bastard. I told him not to send KakaoTalk, and now he’s texting me.
Does my word mean nothing?
Restraining the urge to throw a punch, I turned to Jung Eun-seong. “What are you doing over break?”
“Shooting.”
“Where?”
“Paris.”
“Oh. That sounds nice.”
Didn’t Seo Jae-gyeom go there before? He’d mentioned there was a lot of pickpocketing. I brought it up, and Jung Eun-seong nodded.
“I’m going to buy an Anti-pickpocket Bag.”
“Does it actually work?”
“No idea. But the most important thing is not to let your guard down, right?”
“Start practicing from now.”
I warned Jung Eun-seong about not letting his guard down. “From now on, every time you get careless, I’m taking one pen from your pencil case.”
“Will it work with just a pen?”
“Then carry ten thousand won in your pocket. I’ll pickpocket it from you.”
“Ha.”
Jung Eun-seong, his expression unimpressed, pulled a notebook from his bag. He grabbed a pen and scribbled something in the corner. Curious, I tried to look—
“No, don’t look.”
Jung Eun-seong blocked with his arm, hunched his body, and neatly tore off the corner where he’d written, folded it carefully, and hid it under his pencil case. “Try to pickpocket this.”
“Deal. I’ll steal it before lunch.”
A top student concealing his true abilities.
Ranked 1st in School, admitted to Korea University’s Pickpocketing Department with top honors.
Future aspiration: go to France and steal the Jikji Simche Yojeol.
Starting practice today.
“Does Jung Eun-seong speak French well?”
“Nope. Do you?”
“Not really either.”
My French has improved a lot compared to right after the Regression, though.
“I know things like bonjour, merci, Joan of Arc, jambon beurre, more or less.”
“You know all of that.”
Jung Eun-seong spoke flatly. “Go there, say bonjour, ask for jambon beurre, pay, say merci, and leave. If someone asks your name, say Joan of Arc. You can manage just fine living there.”
“You’d eat jambon beurre your whole life?”
“It’s delicious.”
“But still…”
“Think harder. I bet you know more words.”
“Croissant…?”
“Wow. You could survive there.”
“Wow.”
Confidence swelled up. I started clapping. Clap, clap, clap.
Lee Seo-jun, who’d been listening to our conversation beside me, looked down and laughed. Were you making fun of me too? When I looked over, his face had turned red, and I asked.
“By the way, Kang Da-hye, why did you choose French for your Second Foreign Language?”
“Oh. That’s…”
I’d just followed Seo Jae-gyeom’s choice, but I couldn’t say that outright…
“I wanted to read an untranslated novel by an author I like.”
“Which one?”
“Un peu de soleil dans l’eau froide.”

A shaft of sunlight in cold water.
If there’s still no translation of this book eleven years from now? Actually, there is a translation, but it came out in 1969 or 1997, something like that. They don’t sell it in bookstores either.
Since I’m studying Second Foreign Language anyway, I might as well push myself further and read the original. I’ll master French within eleven years, won’t I?
What? You’ve been studying English for over eleven years and still haven’t mastered it?
Oh dear.
Not me. (Drawing a line)
————-Line————
“Un peu… what did you say?”
Lee Seo-jun tilted his head. I wrote it down for him. Behind me, Jung Eun-seong, watching intently as I scribbled the words for Lee Seo-jun, copied them into his own notebook with its torn corner.
“So you’re trying to read this?”
“Yeah. I’m going to Paris during summer break in my second year of university and buy the book.”
“Why second year?”
“I need to save up money during first year’s summer break.”
“You’re really specific about things. You’ve got plans mapped out all the way to some distant future.”
“Seo-jun, three years away doesn’t feel like such a distant future, does it?”
Ten years flies by, they say.
“Kang Da-hye, where are you going?! Paris?!”
“The Reading Room!”
“Come on~”
“Kang Da-hye, why are you hogging that Chocolate Milk? Give me some.”
Our class’s first and second ranked students, passing by at just that moment, had tried to join in.
“Oh, were you talking, Eun-seong? Sorry.”
One look at Jung Eun-seong’s expressionless gaze and they backed off.
Taking advantage of the moment, I swiftly pickpocketed the paper wedged under Jung Eun-seong’s pencil case.
Thud—Jung Eun-seong snapped the pencil case shut half a beat too late, but it was no use.
“Hehehehe!”
One step closer to reclaiming the Jikji Simche Yojeol!
Should have lived more nimbly, shouldn’t you!
I unfolded the creased paper, laughing at Jung Eun-seong.
[Whoever read this
is an idiot]
“…….”
Jung Eun-seong caught sight of me trembling and let out a quiet laugh.
“What’s ‘idiot’ in French?”
“I don’t know….”
“Sounds like you do though?”
“I said I don’t.”
“Aw, come on.”
This jerk. I brought my hand down hard on Jung Eun-seong’s hand resting on the desk. He just laughed, unbothered by the hit.
I crumpled the note and tossed it at him, then snatched his notebook.
Look at this. I knew you’d mess it up.
“‘Idiot’ is you, Eun-seong. Not ‘On peu’—it’s ‘Un peu.'”
I drew lines through Jung Eun-seong’s handwriting. I couldn’t tell if he’d written letters or scrawled a picture. I added something beneath the messy scribble.
[
O
Un peu de soleil dans l’eau froide
↑ Whoever wrote this is illiterate
Doesn’t know his A B Cs]
Jung Eun-seong, watching me doodle, objected as if it were absurd.
“Isn’t it normal not to know your A B Cs even when you have them?”
“Hmm.”
[With or without them, still doesn’t know his A B Cs
Obviously an idiot anyway]
“The person calling someone an idiot is the real idiot….”
That was when it happened.
A friend burst through the front door, shouting.
“Hey, Song Yeor-eum’s out there at the School Gate!”

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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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