1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 93

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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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The Ranked 1st Student Hides Her Regression
Episode 93
“Song Yeor-eum?”
Why? Did she come to the wrong school?
But what my friend said was completely outside my expectations.
“She said she came to do a one-person protest? She’s causing a commotion at the School Gate right now, demanding Han Ji-su come out!”
“A one-person protest?!”
Setting aside whether a school delinquent forced into transfer and a one-person protest was an odd combination or not—why Ji-su? What for?
“Look.”
I stood from my desk and stepped out of the classroom.
The hallway was already swarming with students who’d heard the news. Everyone was hanging from the windows, peering down at the School Gate.
“Kang Da-hye!”
Park Su-hwan, who’d claimed the best vantage point, yielded the spot beside her. I pressed my nose to the glass and looked outside.
Song Yeor-eum, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, looked gaunt and haggard as she stood before the School Gate.
Her hair, which she used to style with waves using a curler, was now pulled back in a single tight bun, and she was trying to enter the school grounds in casual clothes. The PE Teacher, stationed at the gate, was blocking her.
Blocked by the PE Teacher’s arm, Song Yeor-eum cried out.
“Han Ji-su!!!!!”
Song Yeor-eum’s desperate cry rang out sharply through a window someone had left open.
“Let go!!!!”
“Yeor-eum, please calm down for a moment…….”
“I can’t calm down! Get Han Ji-su out here!”
Soon, other teachers rushed out of the building and grabbed Song Yeor-eum’s arms, dragging her outside the gate.
“Let me go!”
Even with three male teachers on her, Song Yeor-eum didn’t give way easily. Where all that strength came from, I couldn’t fathom—even as they lifted her off her feet and carried her away, she thrashed and held her ground.
“I’m telling you, I have to see Han Ji-su!!!!”
Song Yeor-eum’s outburst was so fierce that the PE Teacher faltered. Unable to restrain his former student with force, he hesitated.
Ji-ri, who’d heaved a sigh, barked something at the PE Teacher.
Soon, pushed by sheer force, Song Yeor-eum vanished outside the gate.
Students who’d stopped on their way to class, watching the scene unfold, started moving again once the PE Teacher clapped his hands and ushered everyone back inside. They filed in one by one.
Now that the spectacle was over, my friends withdrew from the windows.
“What was that?”
“Why is Song Yeor-eum looking for Han Ji-su?”
“Wasn’t Song Yeor-eum’s transfer because of Han Ji-su? She was about to drag Han Ji-su somewhere and beat him up.”
“But that was her own mistake, wasn’t it? She comes to school over that?”
“And wasn’t that a long time ago anyway?”
“What’s with the one-person protest?”
“No idea. Song Yeor-eum said it herself—she came to protest.”
“She’s crazy.”
“A friend told me Song Yeor-eum doesn’t come to school at all these days.”
“What school?”
“Guugu High School.”
I spotted Bang Eun-ji in the crowd of muttering students.
When she saw me and made a small sound, I pulled her to a corner.
“What’s going on? Have you heard anything?”
“Well, that’s…”
Bang Eun-ji touched her bangs and, out of habit, was about to spit on the floor before stopping herself.
“Song Yeor-eum definitely doesn’t come to school now.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I heard her family went broke.”
“Her family went broke?”
“Yeah. But I’m not totally sure.”
“So her family went broke—but why Ji-su…….”
“Kang Da-hye.”
That’s when Ji-su appeared.
Ji-su came hurrying over with the Attendance Register in hand, having stopped by the Staff Room. Despite the looks of concern from those around her, Ji-su’s expression remained as composed as always.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Ji-su brushed off Bang Eun-ji’s question with the faintest of smiles, then looked past me and asked.
“Where are Jung Eun-seong and Seo Jae-gyeom?”
“In the classroom…. Ji-su, are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Thankfully I didn’t run into them.”
“Why is Song Yeor-eum looking for you?”
“I have no idea.”
“According to Bang Eun-ji, Song Yeor-eum’s family went bankrupt…… Do you know anything about it?”
“No…?”
Bankrupt? Ji-su’s eyes widened as she asked back.
“That’s what she said.”
“How?”
“Her father got fired from his company, and her mother’s business failed, apparently.”
Bang Eun-ji jumped in to answer Ji-su’s question. When Ji-su fell silent, she seemed to think her explanation wasn’t complete and added more.
“And it sounds like the kids at school bullied her so badly she had to drop out.”
Ji-su still said nothing, just tilted her head. She blinked a few times, then turned to look at me naturally and asked.
“But why would she come here to tell me all that?”
In that moment, I felt something off.
‘The three of us are having a conversation right now.’
Yet somehow, it seemed like Ji-su and Bang Eun-ji weren’t actually talking to each other.
Now that I think about it.
Had Ji-su ever spoken directly with Bang Eun-ji in the Drama Club?
“You really don’t know anything, do you, Ji-su?”
“Yeah. I genuinely have no clue why she came looking for me.”
“She was going on about some one-person protest or something.”
“A protest? Against me?”
“Probably…… I guess.”
Song Yeor-eum’s request was simple: she wanted Ji-su to come. But before I could say anything more, Ji-su beat me to it.
“Anyway, I’m fine. The person who helps me get to school is still waiting out front, so I think they’ll clear up this misunderstanding by talking it over with Song Yeor-eum.”
“I see….”
A misunderstanding.
So it was a misunderstanding. I nodded, but that strange unease lingered.
“More importantly, Kang Da-hye.”
“Hmm?”
“Have you been preparing hard for the final exam?”
“The final exam?”
Out of nowhere?
Ji-su giggled at my bewildered expression. She gently nudged Bang Eun-ji beside her, then stood in front of me and spoke.
“You know we tied for first place on the midterm, right?”
“I didn’t know that….”
“My literature answer got marked correct retroactively. Apparently the literature teacher found the grading error later.”
“Oh….”
Wait—wasn’t that the teacher’s mistake at all, but rather Ji-su’s mother coming to school and getting the score changed to correct?
I think Seo Jae-gyeom mentioned seeing Ji-su’s mother that day.
“Fortunately, they found it before the correction period closed.”
“I see.”
“So this time, Kang Da-hye, you really have to be serious and work hard.”
“I’m always working hard….”
“No. This time you have to work even harder.”
Ji-su smiled with an affectionate expression and added.
“If you want to beat me, you have to give it your all, right?”
It was from that moment.
That I began to wonder if I hadn’t really known Ji-su well before my regression.
* * *
The president of the company where Song Yeor-eum’s father works is a friend of Ji-su’s father.
Song Yeor-eum’s mother’s shop is located in a building owned by Ji-su’s family.
‘It seems like Mom and Song Yeor-eum’s parents came to an agreement. She’ll just transfer schools on her own.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yeah. Mom seems to have her own ideas about it.’
‘…Like, just getting her father fired from his job and all that? Raising the rent to drive them out of the building…….’
‘No!’
‘Just passing along a message to educate their child well. You know, Kang Da-hye, you can be surprisingly cruel sometimes.’
And today, Song Yeor-eum came to school to find Ji-su.
Saying she would stage a one-person protest.
With a gaunt appearance that bore no resemblance to the Song Yeor-eum of before.
You could assume that after the incident, Song Yeor-eum’s parents simply gripped her tighter, like catching a mouse—but…….
‘The family went bankrupt, didn’t they.’
Han Ji-su claimed he knew nothing about it.
But what if Ji-su’s Mother didn’t know either?
What was certain was how unnaturally convenient the timing felt.
Tap-tap. I drummed the Problem Book with the ballpoint pen I’d been holding. Lee Seo-jun, who’d been reading beside me, flinched and looked over.
“Oh. Sorry.”
I set down the pen and rubbed my eyes.
Since Song Yeor-eum was dragged out through the School Gate, she never came back to school.
The kids who’d been buzzing about it at first wrapped it up with something like “Song Yeor-eum transferred schools and went crazy,” and that was that.
And now the Final Exam was practically here.
Thanks to everyone being shocked by the Practice Exam results from a while back, half the class was already self-studying by the time we arrived in the morning.
“I’m taking care of my boyfriend’s skin myself.”
“Yeah, yeah, got it.”
“There’s no one but me, right? You should reflect on not listening to me lately, babe.”
…….
Everyone except Jang Ji-won and Park Su-hwan.
Watching Jang Ji-won sit on Park Su-hwan’s desk—who was playing a game—fussing over applying lotion to him, I thought about it.
‘She’s got nerves of steel.’
Looking at Park Su-hwan’s rolled-up uniform pants, the white socks visible above his three-stripe slippers, and his thick bangs covering his forehead, I’d lose all composure—but…….
‘Her transfer-student ex is her “babe,” and Jang Ji-won’s future goal is to be a trainer?’
Why are there so many monsters in this class!
After the last incident, the whole school had been united in not talking to that group, but then Jang Ji-won, from our own class, went out of her way to talk to them first and even started dating one of them—so much for school unity. Ugh.
‘She has no sense of the room at all.’
I let out a long sigh and turned my head, meeting eyes with Seo Jae-gyeom.
Seeing my expression, Seo Jae-gyeom asked silently with the shape of his mouth.
‘Should I tell her to shut up?’
‘Yeah.’
Just as Seo Jae-gyeom, having gotten my permission, was about to spring into action—
“Jang Ji-won, shut your mouth. Don’t you see everyone’s trying to study?”
Someone beat Seo Jae-gyeom to it.

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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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