The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The Number One Student Hides Her Regression
‘So, you trading me in for him now?’
To Seo Jae-gyeom’s sarcastic question, I said just one thing.
‘Like it’s any of your business?’
Honestly, wasn’t it true?
Whether I went out with Jeong Eun-seong or Jang Usan, what business was it of Seo Jae-gyeom’s?
* * *
“Urrgh.”
Today had been far too long.
Getting dumped first thing in the morning, excavating my own cringeworthy past, and picking a fight with an iljin delinquent in the cafeteria at lunchtime.
Then fifth period drained the rest of my energy, thanks to Seo Jae-gyeom talking to me from beside my desk.
After my ‘Like it’s any of your business?’ response to his ‘Trading me in?’ question, he hadn’t said anything more, but his expression stayed weird whenever Jeong Eun-seong and I crossed paths after that.
He seemed to think that after being rejected by him, I was parading around attached at the hip with another boy right in front of his face.
As if I were using Jeong Eun-seong in some cheap ploy to make him jealous.
Come to think of it, Seo Jae-gyeom was quietly full of himself.
Maybe that’s what happened when you spent your entire eighteen years of life as the popular guy.
“If I had enough charm to pull Jeong Eun-seong just to make someone jealous, I would’ve seduced you ages ago, Seo Jae-gyeom.”
Muttering to myself, I turned into the alley leading toward our neighborhood.
Fifth period, sixth period, seventh period after lunch, and then homeroom.
I had been on edge through all the afternoon classes, fearing Song Yeo-reum would come find me the very next break to drag me into the bathroom or grab me by the hair, but thankfully nothing like that happened.
She wasn’t waiting by the front gates to ambush me on my way home, either.
Still, just in case, I kept my guard up on all sides as I walked home. Ready to fling my backpack and bolt at a moment’s notice.
Waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green, I drafted my study plan in my smartphone’s notepad app.
“First, figure out how much math I’ve forgotten and crush it step-by-step. For Korean and English, just practice problem-solving…”
“Hey, Dahye! Kang Da-hye!”
“Huh? Ah… hello.”
“School just let out?”
“Yes.”
The ones calling me were a group of ajummas gathered on plastic chairs in front of the hair salon.
Dark gray towels wrapped around their heads, the sharp stench of chemical dye wafting through the air. Paper cups marked with lipstick stains, traditional crackers, and dried squid scattered across the table.
“Schools let out early these days, huh?”
Only after the woman spoke to me once more did I remember who she was.
It was our villa’s landlady.
‘I didn’t recognize her for a second.’
You look so much younger, too.
“Looks like you’re getting your hair done.”
“Yeah, dyeing the gray hairs. Wetting our whistles while we’re at it~.”
“Are you drinking coffee?”
“Not coffee, soju! Want a shot, Dahye?”
“Aish, what are you saying to a kid!”
The salon ajumma sitting beside her smacked the landlady’s back with a laugh.
“Don’t you ever drink this stuff when you grow up, Dahye. It tastes awful! Makes you gain weight!”
‘I’ve already had plenty of it, though.’
Swallowing the reply I couldn’t say out loud, I took a dried squid leg offered to me and chewed on it.
The landlady—who would move down to the countryside in about five years to help raise her granddaughter, making her a rare sight after that—was our neighborhood’s Dispatch.
There wasn’t a person or rumor she didn’t know about, and with a voice as loud as hers, getting on her bad side was an absolute headache.
For the record, when she found out I ranked first in the whole school during my first year, do you know what she said?
‘Studying well? It’s all useless. You’re still going to hell if you don’t believe in Jesus.’
And when my mental state shattered after some random grandfather grabbed me by the hair, causing me to ruin my CSAT, do you know what she said?
‘Let’s overcome this through prayer. That incident was the Lord’s providence to use you in a different way, Dahye…’
“Anyway, heading home?”
“Yes. I’m going to eat and then head to the library.”
“Don’t kids do night self-study these days? Back then, my daughter used to eat dinner at school and come home at eleven at night.”
“Awoo, Jieun’s mother! Kids these days don’t do that. Kids nowadays go to cafes, order a Strawberry Yogurt Blended, and study! A Strawberry Yogurt Blended.”
“What? Strawberry Yogurt Blended? What’s a Strawberry Yogurt Blended?”
“I know! Strawberry Yogurt Blended!”
“Oh my! What the heck!”
“Hohoho! Mind blown!”
“Hahaha… excuse me…”
I backed away from the ajummas whose voices were growing louder by the second.
“Hey, Dahye! It wasn’t you guys who dumped those cardboard boxes by the utility pole, was it?! Nobody’s gonna pick them up if you leave them there!”
“No, it wasn’t us~.”
“If you happen to see who did it, tell me, okay?! Make sure you do!”
“Yes, ma’am~.”
I quickly walked away and stepped into the familiar villa.
“Augh. I’m starving.”
Skipping lunch made me seriously hungry.
Tossing my backpack onto the floor, I headed into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
However.
“There’s nothing to eat.”
The only things in the fridge were kimchi with only the brine left and red pepper paste scraping the bottom of the container. I was ready to settle for whatever I could scrape together, but there wasn’t even any rice.
“Maybe I should’ve bought some ramyeon.”
Then again, after buying chocolate milk with Jisu at the snack bar after fifth period, I didn’t have a single won to my name…
After peering into the fridge as it let out a weird whirring and rattling noise, I closed the door and slung my bag back over my shoulder.
“I’ll just go eat at Mom’s shop.”
Mom, who worked as a housekeeper at Seo Jae-gyeom’s house when I was young, now ran a tiny snack shop with three tables in the market.
‘The Madam can be a bit fickle, but she’s still a good person. When I said I had to quit because of my bad back, she even gave me severance pay. That’s how I was able to open the shop, after all.’
Those were the words of my mother, who still referred to Seo Jae-gyeom’s mother as Madam.
For the record, neither Seo Jae-gyeom nor I had a father.
My father walked out when I was young… and as for Seo Jae-gyeom’s father, who knows, he was probably at his main family’s estate right about now.
“I’ll read the room and ask for ten thousand won to buy workbooks.”
Muttering that being a college student was nice since I could earn and spend my own money, I entered the market entrance.
Just one block further was the middle school I graduated from.
So all my middle school classmates knew that Kang Da-hye was the market tteokbokki shop owner’s daughter.
We occasionally ran into each other at the shop, too.
Before my regression, I was so embarrassed by it that I would’ve rather starved than ever go eat at the shop, but now? Whatever.
‘Why wouldn’t I go? The tteokbokki is delicious.’
Spicy wheat tteokbokki with glass noodles, sprinkled generously with sesame seeds—japchae tteokbokki. Ordering sundae with it and dipping it into the sauce is the most delicious thing in the world. You have to try it!
“Mom!”
I pushed open the worn iron door that looked more like a mill than a snack shop.
“Mom, I’m ho… me?”
My cheerful shout instantly faltered.
The narrow shop was in utter disarray.
As if a table had tipped and sent everything crashing down, tteokbokki, sundae, coke cans, and hard-boiled eggs were rolling across the floor, and gimbap fillings were strewn everywhere.
Plastic-wrapped green plates and styrofoam bowls lay overturned under the table.
Sauce splattered all the way up the wall.
In the middle of it all, Mom was on her knees on the floor, scooping up the spilled tteokbokki and gimbap with her bare hands.
“Oh, my daughter’s here?”
Seeing me, Mom wiped her hands on her apron looking embarrassed and got to her feet.
“Mom, are you okay? You’re not hurt?”
I quickly grabbed the tissue box from the next table and rushed over.
“How did this happen? Did you drop it?”
“No, a customer had their leg sticking out past the table and I didn’t see it… Leave it, Mom will do it. Go sit down.”
“Why are you doing this with your bare hands? Leave it, I’ll go get a rag.”
“It’s fine. It’s faster by hand. I was just so flustered…”
“Mom, you’re going to burn your hands!”
Just as I was stopping Mom from reaching into the piping-hot sauce—
“Ajumma, so what about our tteokbokki? How long are we supposed to wait?”
A sharp voice dropped over the heads of Mom and me as we crouched on the floor.
At the same time, a clean white sneaker stepped onto a rice cake Mom was picking up.
A black footprint stamped onto the red-sauced wheat rice cake.
“Ah, shit, my shoe got dirty. Ajumma, wipe this off first.”
“And bring some wet wipes, too.”
Click.
At the same time, the faint shutter sound of a phone camera went off.
Hearing the shutter sound themselves, they stifled snickers.
I slowly raised my head.
Three girls sitting at the table right in front of where Mom and I were crouching.
Familiar school uniforms. Hair styled with a flat iron in the bathroom during break, hair rollers pinned to their bangs. Faces I hadn’t registered a moment ago.
“Ah, crap, I think she noticed.”
“Of course she did, idiot. The shutter clicked loud and clear.”
“Ah, fucking hilarious. Kang Da-hye’s mom is on her knees in front of us.”
“Look at her fingernails. Sundae got stuck in them, so gross, I’m gonna puke.”
It was Song Yeo-reum and her friends.
Song Yeoreum’s lackey—the one I had warned would end up on if she kept living like this—showed her phone screen to Song Yeo-reum.
“So fucking funny. Look at this. The photo came out looking so stupid.”
“Ah, whatever~ What about my shoes~ Sauce splattered all over them!!!!! Selling this entire shop wouldn’t be enough to buy a new pair!”
Song Yeo-reum stomped her feet, splashing in the sauce spilled on the floor.
The sauce splattered near my eyes.
Meeting my eyes, Song Yeo-reum burst into roaring laughter.
