The Regressor's Ice Is Golden - Chapter 5

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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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005.

Monday morning, a week after the entrance ceremony, and the Middle School classroom thrummed with noise.
The energetic ones were busy hunting down friends from other classes, eager to gossip.
Others circulated fruit candies among classmates they didn’t know yet, making connections wherever they could.
‘I want to go home…….’
Sitting here in my School Uniform among these kids who’d barely left their cradles, I felt my spirit draining away.
I passed the time by checking the clock, then staring ahead again, over and over.
The moment the homeroom teacher entered and morning assembly ended, the students surged to their feet in unison, books and pencil cases in hand.
Right—we were on the Subject-Based Classroom System.
That meant moving to a different classroom every break.
‘Where am I supposed to go.’
The building split into two wings, five classes on each side, ten classes total.
I stifled a sigh, grabbed my textbook, and stepped into the hallway where a mass migration was underway.

***

I picked someone at random from my class and followed them into the room.
Since we weren’t in the Free Semester System yet, there were no electives, so this had to be the right place.
‘I need to write down where each classroom is.’
I set my textbook down at an empty desk and stepped out to the water fountain for a drink.
My face reflected in the stainless-steel basin.
A short-haired girl, baby fat still clinging to her cheeks.
No matter how many times I saw it, I couldn’t get used to this being my face.
It was my face, certainly, but it was strange to see it without the dark circles and acne that had ravaged it before.
Back in the classroom, I cracked open the math textbook.
I’d attended classes before, but in middle school I hadn’t been much of a student.
Back then, before making the National Team, my practice schedule was so irregular that I skipped school frequently.
Even tomorrow, I was planning to leave right after lunch and head to the Ice Rink.
Once I’d made the National Team, I was officially excused from classes and essentially lived in the Athletes’ Village.
After I quit figure skating and entered high school, just catching up on the coursework was overwhelming.
So this time around.
‘I might as well pay attention.’
Cha Seo-hee, who’d been a 2-time Olympic Champion, was only twenty-two in Korean age.
Socially, that made her just a third-year college student in job-hunting mode.
Life doesn’t end the moment you retire, and some thought about what to do afterward wouldn’t hurt.
“Wait, is she seriously Cha Seo-hee’s sister?”
……?
“She really is, I’m telling you? I heard it straight from Lee Seo-hyun last week. The Korean teacher even acted like she knew about it?”
“Whoa, no way. So wait, doesn’t that make her a fourth-generation chaebol too?”
“She’s in the same class as Lee Seo-hyun, right? But I heard Cha Seo-hee goes to this school too?”
“But they didn’t say anything about it at the entrance ceremony, did they?”
I didn’t turn my head, just angled my ears toward the voices.
Three girls were whispering by the back door.
From what I could gather, they were planning to seek her out during the next break and ask about it.
They must have been from different classes—the moment the bell rang, they scattered.
I caught a glimpse of the girl who’d entered the classroom.
‘Cha Seo-hee’s sister?’
Come to think of it, there’d been an interview ages ago where she’d mentioned they were twins.
That they’d started figure skating together.
My resolution proved hollow—I barely paid attention to math class that day.

The moment class ended, I tracked the girl who’d been gossiping earlier.
The three of them regrouped in the hallway and moved into the adjacent building.
By the back door of Grade 1, Class 3.
The place was already packed and bustling.
As I slipped into the crowd, the scene became clear.
A dozen pairs of eyes were fixed intently on a single girl, examining her like she was a primate at the zoo.
She wore her School Uniform neatly, with a modest frame.
Black-framed glasses and straight hair that fell past her shoulders.
And a sharp, somehow familiar impression.
Cha Jin-hee, seated at her desk, was visibly terrified.
Her discomfort was written all over her face, but the barrage of questions showed no mercy.
“……Why would you even ask that.”
“Isn’t she your older sister? How could you not know?”
“Have you ever seen Yuna in person?”
“Do you use a TK Phone too?”
“Have you seen Yuna land a Triple Axel?”
……Oh no.
I watched the scene unfold for a moment with quiet sympathy.
I understood how this felt from the perspective of the person at the center of it.
Also, something about the phrase “Yuna’s Triple Axel” bothered me.
She had never landed a Triple Axel in competition.
“Hey, friend, why aren’t you answering? Don’t you want to?”
A girl with bright red lips, who’d started this semester, tapped Cha Jin-hee’s shoulder repeatedly.
I slipped out through the opposite door and circled back around the classroom.
Then I re-entered through the same door I’d just left.
“Hold on. Hey, sorry.”
I pushed through the tightly clustered students and caught Cha Jin-hee’s eye.
“Look, if you transferred to this school, you should’ve mentioned it sooner. Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“Huh? What?”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her out without hesitation.
“You can catch class in the back building. Come on.”
“What’s with her?”
Ignoring the murmurs, I led Cha Jin-hee down the corridor against the flow of traffic.
Beyond the hallway connecting the two buildings, you’d find the back building classrooms and stairs.
Head up to the fifth floor and you’d hit the Art Room and Science Room.
No classes would be using those rooms this semester.
Indeed, the fifth floor was completely deserted.
Only then did I release her hand.
“Sorry for dragging you out so suddenly. You looked pretty uncomfortable, so I figured I’d help.”
“No, it’s fine. Thank you.”
“Man, what did that teacher say to get all those kids swarming like that. Already a headache in the first semester.”
“…….”
Cha Jin-hee looked flustered, glancing between her own hand and me uncertainly.
The tension hadn’t left her at all.
Sadly so.
“Which class are you supposed to be in? I dragged you out, but we should probably find your textbook.”
“……First year, Class 8. Social Studies.”
“Ah, so we’re neighbors. Our next class is in Class 7.”
I glanced through the Science Room window at the wall clock beyond it.
About four minutes of break time left.
“Let’s wait here for a minute, then head down. We’ll slip in right as class starts—that way fewer people will notice.”
“Okay.”
Now that I thought about it, I’d left my things back in the classroom I’d just come from.
Since it was in the same building, the route wouldn’t be too long.
I leaned against the concrete wall and accidentally met Cha Jin-hee’s eyes.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Oh.”
I answered without hesitation.
“Kim Ha-seol, Class 7. I’m a figure skater too.”
“Oh…….”
Cha Jin-hee’s expression darkened again.
I shook my head gently.
“Just so you know—I’m not interested in your older sister.”
Not that it would matter either way in a situation like this.
“It’s just, something rubbed me wrong. It’s been years since Yuna retired.”
“……Yeah, that’s true.”
How long had I let the silence sit there.
I glanced at the clock again and pushed off from the wall.
“We should head out. We’ll be late.”
“Hey.”
When I turned around, Cha Jin-hee was nibbling her lower lip as she spoke.
“Want to grab lunch together later?”
I hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
It wasn’t as though I had other friends anyway.
“I’ll meet you in front of Class 3 at lunch.”
“Okay.”
Neither of us waiting for the other, we hurried down the stairs together.
After gathering my things from Class 9, I found myself recalling a few details about Cha Jin-hee.
TK—a vast conglomerate renowned for electronics and various industries.
Cha Seo-hee and Cha Jin-hee, twin sisters from the chairman’s household, had both taken up figure skating since childhood.
But where had the younger sister Cha Jin-hee gone? Only Cha Seo-hee remained.
Cha Jin-hee had quit figure skating abruptly in elementary school.
I’d heard it was a sprained ankle, but I recalled it wasn’t that severe.
Medical bills certainly wouldn’t have been an issue for a family of their means.
So that left only one possibility.
‘Her parents must have forced her to stop.’
Whatever the family circumstances of the conglomerate, I remembered her competition results had been somewhat lackluster compared to Cha Jin-hee’s.
Given how conservative their family’s reputation was, they might have decided it was better to have one daughter focus on academics.
After all, the retirement age in the sport was exceptionally young, and it wasn’t a mainstream sport.
I turned the question of her usefulness over in my mind.
The odds of her parents providing material support were low.
But she’d likely retained connections in the skating world.
Since she’d quit by choice, not out of disinterest.
Having tried it herself, she’d naturally possess solid knowledge of skating.
Assuming she stayed in school, I could ask her how the world outside actually worked.
If I was unlucky, I might catch wind of rumors that she was close friends with some rival family, but—
‘Never mind.’
No point dividing people into tiers when she’d only just put on a school uniform.
I stopped thinking and entered the next classroom.
I’d ask for her number during lunch.

***

As expected, lunch proved uneventful.
Maybe she was the type who didn’t talk while eating, or maybe she was just uncomfortable.
I attended through the sixth period and headed home after school.
Today’s practice was proceeding with public admission closed.
“It’s crowded.”
“Tell me about it.”
I gazed wistfully at the ice rink teeming with people.
From four o’clock onward for two hours, the ice rink opened for general public use.
But the peculiar thing was that elementary-level lessons overlapped with this time slot.
Figure skating, short-track speed skating, and speed skating all at once.
The result was nothing short of spectacular chaos.
Along the edges, speed-skating coaches and wobbling elementary-schoolers zigzagged past amateurs in between.
In the middle, several coaches divided the space and conducted figure-skating classes with their students.
What could anyone actually accomplish in this madhouse after paying admission?
Practice spins and skating in whatever corner the lessons didn’t reach—that was about it.
“Want some water?”
“Yes, please.”
At least it was Monday, so I was thankful the coach was watching only me.
I took a sip of the Ion Drink and handed it back to the coach.
Outside the boundary cones the staff had set up along the rink’s edge, that was today’s practice space.
In terms of floor area, roughly six pyeong.
I tightened my skate laces firmly and set aside my blade guards.
‘Status Window.’
I scrolled past a few pop-ups and opened the Permanent Challenges menu.

[Permanent Challenges]
[Perform Upright One-Foot Spin 20 rotations or more (2 Points)]
[Perform Step Sequence bilateral clusters once each (2 Points)]

With limited practice space, there was nothing to do but spin.
I took a slow lap around the Ice Rink first.
The ice was a bit harder than during the rental lessons.
Pop music hummed through the rink, which thrummed with cold vitality.
Students and coaches focused on their lessons, circling inside and out.
Parents waiting on the benches.
And there, in the midst of it all, was Cha Jin-hee — clinging to her companion’s arm.
‘…What?’
What was this.
Some lanky male student was making a huge fuss with his arm hooked through hers.
As I drew closer, I caught snatches of their conversation.
“Hey, hey, hey, really, what if I fall? I’m seriously going to fall, yeah? Aaaah!”
“Why is it every time? Every time you come, you’ve forgotten how? You were doing fine last time.”
“That was half a year ago!”
Looking closer, he wasn’t so much holding onto her arm as dangling from it entirely.
Eventually the boy grabbed the rink boards and whined.
Cha Jin-hee regarded him with pity.
“I keep telling you—you can’t be afraid of falling. If you keep doing this, I’m leaving you behind…”
And then, turning her head absently, her eyes met mine.
“…”
What are you staring at.
I was about to pass right by.
Then, unexpectedly, she suddenly started chasing me!
“Wait, hey, hey, hey!”
I pushed off the ice and bolted without thinking.
A Regression User on Ice: Volume 5, Golden Edition
E-book Release Date | June 5, 2026

Author | Korkarolli
Publisher | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Publishing House | Potence

Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 11 Yeonmugjang-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260514092.0005
List Price | Not for Sale

© Korkarolli 2026

This e-book is protected under copyright law.
This e-book is published by agreement with the author, and unauthorized reproduction, distribution, sharing, or transmission in any form without written consent from both parties is prohibited.

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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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