1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 99

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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 in School Hides Her Regression
Episode 99
The day before the end-of-term ceremony.
“Kang Da-hye got them all right again. Wow, how does she ace every single test in a semester like that….”
Ji-su, a second-year student in Class 1, had the thought.
‘That teacher definitely has a soft spot for Da-hye.’
It was the same back in first year.
After the Midterm Exam in first semester of first year, during the first class afterward, when the teacher saw Da-hye sitting in the front row, this was what he said:
‘I heard you got a perfect score.’
He went on about how he hated students who got everything right, how a hundred percent showed no humanity whatsoever.
Yet it was obvious he adored her.
Ji-su still remembered what Da-hye had answered back then.
‘Sir, it wasn’t just your class. I got everything perfect across the board.’
“She’s just naturally gifted, that one.”
Why was he bragging about her to other classes? Wasn’t the teacher actually attracted to Da-hye romantically?
“You and Da-hye are close, aren’t you?”
“Yes. We’re best friends.”
As Ji-su answered obediently, the mechanical pencil in her hand snapped with a series of sharp clicks as the lead broke off in pieces.
…Well, it was true that Da-hye was exceptional.
She used to be good at studying alone, but lately she was popular too.
Just look at Seo Jae-gyeom.
‘Did you apologize to her?’
‘Tutoring? Me? With you?’
Her own suggestion that they take tutoring together over break had been flatly ignored, and then out of nowhere she heard that Seo Jae-gyeom was getting tutored with Da-hye instead.
The change in Seo Jae-gyeom—who at the start of second year had openly found Da-hye annoying—felt strange to her.
Seo Jae-gyeom and Han Ji-su. And Kang Da-hye.
She had thought Seo Jae-gyeom understood better than anyone the hierarchy that existed between them, but maybe she was wrong.
How could he not understand? Ji-su tilted her head in confusion.
‘Han Ji-su. If you befriend someone below your level, you don’t rise to meet them. You sink to theirs.’
‘Children inherit their parents’ habits whether they like it or not. It’s fine to be close with Kang Da-hye, but you have to be careful not to pick up her ways, understand?’
‘Watch that house carefully. That’s what happens when you don’t work hard when you’re young.’
Ji-su agreed completely with what her mother said every day.
Both Ji-su’s parents and Seo Jae-gyeom’s parents were university graduates, refined and dignified; Kang Da-hye’s mother had no education and was crude. As for her father, Ji-su didn’t even know where he was.
Whatever he was, he’d probably be the same—lazy and ignorant.
A girl with family problems like that couldn’t help but have problems herself.
It was carved into her during her upbringing. Unchangeable.
Wasn’t the reason Da-hye studied so desperately to avoid becoming like her parents? She was ashamed of them too.
Even so, it was impossible to completely shed one’s background.
Still, Da-hye herself wasn’t bad.
Left alone, she would struggle to attend a good university, land a respectable job, and live a life nothing like her shabby home.
And she would likely succeed in that attempt.
Their level matched well enough, which was why she’d become her friend.
Da-hye was good at studying and pretty, and devoted to her friends—she was the friend Ji-su treasured most.
So she wasn’t upset now that her friend was becoming popular. It was just that.
Just that.
‘There’s a hierarchy even among friends.’
Honestly, Ji-su resented the fact that Da-hye, whom she’d always thought of as inferior, was now receiving attention.
It was fine when Da-hye was just the friend who was good at studying—better than Ji-su, but only at that. Now, though.
Already indifferent to her classes, Ji-su tapped her mechanical pencil against the Problem Book.
‘And grades are the same way.’
Da-hye had changed. The people around her had changed. The second-year midterm was drawing closer. To Ji-su, who was growing increasingly anxious, her mother had said something.
Not to worry so much. Da-hye probably wouldn’t rank first this time.
‘You just focus on studying. I’ll take care of the rest.’
Ji-su didn’t know why her mother spoke with such confidence, but she didn’t particularly want to know either.
And like clockwork, the day before the exam, an accident befell Da-hye’s mother.
A hit-and-run bicycle accident in a blind spot of the security cameras, they said.
It was unfortunate, but these things happened.
The world was cold.
While Da-hye wandered through the hospital all night, extracting bones, Ji-su had stayed up studying.
She thought this time she could rank first.
It was opportune timing—the class rankings were about to be posted. This was her chance.
Once people locked in the perception that “Han Ji-su is actually first,” it would be nearly impossible to change.
‘But she got them all right anyway, every last one.’
Ji-su remembered clearly the conversations that had rippled through the students at the bulletin board that day.
Just as she remembered the teacher’s conversation with Kang Da-hye from last year.
‘But seriously, Kang Da-hye gets first place without even going to cram school once, and I go to private tutoring and academy both and I still can’t do this well. Am I not trying hard enough?’
‘Hey, at least you go to academy. I asked my mom to send me to cram school because I said I can’t study at home, and you know what she said?’
‘What?’
‘That girl who’s first in your whole school doesn’t even go to cram school—it’s famous among mothers—so why can’t you?’
99.6.
The score Ji-su herself had received was almost miraculous.
But because of Kang Da-hye, her name had been pushed down one rank.
Those below her looked at her with pity—isn’t it a shame, what can you do—as though her achievements were beneath their sympathy.
It would have been better if Kang Da-hye had simply kept quiet and let it pass.
‘I would’ve done even better if I’d had private tutoring and gone to academy.’
‘You could do better than you do now?’
‘Of course. I could top not just the school but the whole country. I study well partly because I work hard, but I was born with talent. Usually, if the environment doesn’t support you, it’s hard to do well in studies.’
‘Is that so?’
‘That’s right. The whole idea that you can overcome an unfair environment through effort is a lie. Adults just made it up because they can’t change the system themselves—it’s easier to blame individuals.’
‘But you’re doing well.’
‘Which proves I’m exceptional. Even someone like me barely made first place after studying all day long.’
In the end, isn’t that just bragging about herself?
The elbows worn through from how much she’d worn the school uniform, the slippers that looked shabby despite being the same as everyone else’s. Everyone knew she lived in a semi-basement in a single-parent household—why did she strut around like that? Ji-su thought this way, and the others around her agreed.
‘Right. It’s not the same when your parents push you to study versus when your parents just sit around watching TV loud at home.’
‘Right. So why does she blame everything on me? She talks like my lack of effort is the only reason.’
If Ji-su had said something like that herself, the atmosphere would’ve turned cold. She would’ve been mocked for being a show-off, again and again.
But why did people sympathize when Kang Da-hye said it?
At least Moon Hak had admitted his mistake and corrected the score, so things had somehow worked out until the Midterm Exam.
But the Final Exam…….
Click-click-click.
Click-click-click-click-click.
“Ji-su?”
The teacher glanced over in surprise as Ji-su jabbed the mechanical pencil tip dozens of times.
The other students’ eyes turned toward her, and Ji-su smiled sheepishly.
“Sorry. My pencil lead suddenly stopped coming out.”
“Oh, you scared me.”
I thought something had happened. The teacher chuckled and continued with the lesson. In the textbook illustration—the eye of a smiling elementary school child—Ji-su’s mechanical pencil had punched straight through.
‘No. Kang Da should do well at studying. That’s all she has.’
If she doesn’t get into college, her whole life is over.
Besides, from next semester, there’s no need to worry about any of this.
Because.
‘You bring home scores like this?’
‘You’re already halfway through high school. Han Ji-su, are you going to be second forever?’
‘I can never tell anyone my daughter is perennially second, so you’d better do something about it.’
‘It’s not even perennially second. You’ve never been second. This time you were twenty-first.’
‘Sigh. I really didn’t want to use this method…….’
‘Han Ji-su, are you making your mother do this sort of thing?’
From the second semester onward, she was absolutely going to be first.
No matter how much Kang Da-hye struggled, it wouldn’t happen.
Pop.
And pop again.
Ji-su tilted her head as she cleanly pierced out both eyes of the smiling child in the illustration.
To be clear: she didn’t hate Kang Da-hye or envy her.
I like Kang Da, I’m telling you?
It was just like when you run into a barista from a café you frequent at a convenience store and they don’t let you cut in line, or when you see the housekeeper at your place show up wearing a designer watch—that kind of bad feeling.
It’s not that I dislike them and that’s why I feel bad.
Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
Anyway, I wonder if Seo Jae-gyeom will show up to academy today.
He hasn’t missed once since I told his mother about him.

I’d like to have a conversation with you…….

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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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