The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 21
Chapter 21
The Rank 1 Student Conceals Her Regression
Period 2. How Are You All Doing?
Fortunately, Sein didn’t suggest we rob a bank. That was a relief, considering I had no idea how to shoot a gun.
“Dahye, do you want to do a part-time job?”
“A part-time job?”
Were there part-time jobs willing to hire high schoolers?
I was sure there were some, but…
I’d rather spend that time studying.
As if reading the reluctance written across my face, Sein waved her hands dismissively.
“It’s nothing hard or time-consuming! You’d just help the teachers at an academy make photocopies and grade papers, and in your spare time, you can just sit at the desk and do your own thing.”
“An academy?”
“Yeah. My aunt is the director of an academy at the Gugugu High School intersection. The oppa who worked there part-time broke up with his girlfriend and went totally off the grid out of nowhere… so my aunt asked me to recommend a smart friend. Just temporarily, for about a month.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. The academy closes at ten, so it does finish a bit late, but she said she’d pay for your transportation and give you leftover workbooks for free. The hourly wage is 5,500 won.”
“I’ll do it.”
I agreed in a heartbeat.
One month wouldn’t disrupt my studies too much, the hourly wage was pretty good for this era, and there was downtime.
Besides, if it was an academy, couldn’t I subtly ask the teachers there whenever I hit a wall while studying?
“Awesome! Then I’ll call my aunt and ask her right now!”
Her face brightening, Sein pulled out her phone immediately.
“Auntie, it’s me… You know that part-time job you mentioned yesterday? Yeah.”
After chattering away for a while, Sein pulled the phone from her ear and looked back at me.
“Dahye-ya, my aunt wants to know if you happen to know how to use Hangul Word and Excel…? Not anything crazy, just the really basic stuff.”
Even as she spoke, her expression instantly clouded over, clearly doubting I’d know how.
Right. Why would a high school student know Excel?
Even plenty of college students didn’t know how to use it.
I gave the troubled Sein a bright grin.
“Tell her I even know how to use formulas.”
A golden tip for prospective regressors: get your Level 1 Computer Specialist certification in advance.
“Then do you go there too, Sein?”
“Ah, my house is far away, so I don’t…”
And that was how I became a temporary part-timer at Ibaji Academy.
Occupying two entire floors of a commercial building near the downtown area, Ibaji Academy was a fairly large academy with many students from Gogogo High School, Gugugu High School, Jungjungjung Middle School, and Jongjong Middle School.
As it turned out, it was quite famous among kids who had graduated from the same girls’ middle school as Sein.
It didn’t filter students like the academy Jisu and Seo Jae-gyeom attended, but perhaps because of that, it felt like it had even more enrolled students.
I’d never had any reason to come out toward the Gugugu High School intersection, so I hadn’t known.
“Oh my, you really do know how to use it!”
“Of course.”
“What a relief. The guy before you was a college junior, but he didn’t even know how to calculate an average. He was literally sitting there typing everything into a handheld calculator.”
“Haha… When I was in college, I didn’t know the first thing about Excel either.”
“Oh my, you’re quite the joker!”
I was glad the director liked me. She had a habit of wearing white pants with cartoon characters on the seat, and her Kotalk status message was ‘Yeosu Night Sea…^^’.
The work at the academy was truly simple.
I sat at the desk answering calls, took care of copying or grading whenever teachers requested it, and did light closing duties when the academy wrapped up at 10 p.m., such as checking for lost items and turning off the classroom lights.
It was far easier and more comfortable than the convenience store shifts I used to juggle alongside tutoring when I was in college.
On top of that, I received a whole stack of leftover workbooks for free!
I hadn’t really done much for her, yet she set me up with such a sweet gig. Sein really was a sweetheart.
If there was one unusual thing, however…
“…Hi.”
“Yeah. Hi.”
10:10 p.m. Right after the students poured out in a rush following the end of class.
While making my way down floor by floor turning off the lights, I ran into Kim Gaeun just coming out of a classroom.
Who was Kim Gaeun?
Kyung Sein’s Friend #2.
The one who had flatly refused Sein’s suggestion to ‘ask Doyeon if there’s anything you don’t know.’
The one who had stood idly by and gone home early even while Sein and Sua were helping me on the day Bang Eunji vandalized my locker.
Though Sein and Sua never made it obvious, out of that group, she seemed to dislike Doyeon the most.
‘Do you think rumors like that start out of nowhere? Woo Do-yeon must have given them a reason. There’s no smoke without fire.’
I had overheard her saying that to Sua before.
That same Kim Gaeun was only now dragging her feet out of the classroom, ten whole minutes after class had ended. Her expression was utterly foul, as if she had been scolded during class.
“Did you lose something?”
“No. Why?”
“Ah… Just because you’re leaving late.”
“Oh.”
“…….”
“…….”
“Are you stopping by the restroom before you go? They’re cleaning it right now, though.”
“Ah. Yeah.”
“…….”
Why isn’t she leaving?
My social battery is already at its limit. I have nothing left to say.
“Are your parents coming to pick you up?”
“No.”
“…….”
“Kim Gaeun! Why haven’t you left yet! If you stay any longer, we’ll get cited for violating curfew laws, hurry up and go!”
A teacher who had just stepped out of the teachers’ room shouted upon seeing Kim Gaeun. Glaring at the teacher with an annoyed look, Kim Gaeun stormed right out without so much as a goodbye.
What is her problem?
“Dahye, you should head home soon too, nothing left to do, right?”
“Ah, yes. I’ll just quickly finish the copies another teacher asked for and head out.”
I said, looking down at my phone as it suddenly began buzzing like crazy.
Wondering what was going on, I saw it was our class group chat.
[Class 2 of 2nd Grade]
20:39
[There’s homework for Math Class A (Due tomorrow)]
[Do Hajun]
Are you bragging that you’re in Math Class A right now?
(Some weird anime GIF that I didn’t even want to identify)
22:11
[Class 2 of 2nd Grade - Girls Only >.<]
[Ye Sua]
Ah, did you guys see what Do Hajun just sent? ㅡㅡ Seriously so disgusting
22:13
A lot of kids are on their phones at this hour.
Well, this is the exact time when academy classes end and everyone checks their phones.
While waiting for the copy machine to finish running, I scrolled up through the class group chat with my thumb.
Naturally, Jeong Eun-seong and Seo Jae-gyeom were in this class too.
Jeong Eun-seong hadn’t uttered a single word so far, and Seo Jae-gyeom likewise never showed up unless someone singled him out to talk to him.
‘Jeong Eun-seong is quiet in the Drama Club chatroom too. Did he even check the script Jisu sent?’
[Class 2 of 2nd Grade]
[Ye Sua]
Ah, Do Hajun, get lost, you’re making me so fucking sick
22:15
[Do Hajun]
(GIF)
(GIF)
(GIF)
22:15
[Homeroom Teacher]
Guys, let’s get some sleep ㅠㅠ
Hajun-ah, you stop it too
I’m going to see that in my nightmares
22:15
[Seo Jae-gyeom has left the chat.]
“…Huh…?”
I froze midway through organizing the printouts, my eyes going wide.
Did Seo Jae-gyeom just leave?
“Did he leave because it was gross?”
Still, to actually leave the class group chat……
[Class 2 of 2nd Grade - Girls Only >.<]
[Kyung Sein]
What do we do
Looks like Jaegyeom left cuz he was grossed out
22:16
Seriously. He doesn’t even come to school, yet he makes his presence known like this.
Intimidated by Seo Jae-gyeom’s exit, Do Hajun stopped sending GIFs and vanished, while the girls’ chatroom was thrown into complete chaos.
Staring at the incessantly vibrating phone, I fell into deep thought.
Should I invite him back? Because I’m the (interim) class president?
Or should I try sending him a direct message?
I haven’t sent a private message to Seo Jae-gyeom once since I regressed.
“I’ll leave the copies right here! I’m heading out now!”
“Goodnight, Dahye~ Thanks for your hard work~”
I rode the elevator down while hunting for my chat history with Seo Jae-gyeom, which had long since scrolled far down the list.
Fortunately, by that time, the homeroom teacher had reappeared and reinvited Seo Jae-gyeom.
[Class 2 of 2nd Grade]
[Homeroom Teacher]
This place is a prison, you can’t leave
22:29
Heh…
Right. Leaving isn’t allowed.
When you go, sick of seeing the GIFs… I shall never let you go, not even if I die…
“Leaving late today, aren’t you?”
Huh?
I looked up mid-typing.
A few meters ahead, some middle-aged man was walking right alongside Kim Gaeun, glued uncomfortably close to her side.
“You came out late because you were asking that handsome teacher questions, didn’t you? No? Is there no handsome teacher?”
Why hasn’t she gone home yet?
Is that her dad beside her?
“…….”
“A high school girl shouldn’t be walking around alone so late.”
Why is he still here?
I deliberately waited over twenty minutes before coming out.
“Studying is just an excuse, isn’t it? You’re going to that academy to date, aren’t you? Huh?”
I should have just walked out when the other kids were leaving. I miscalculated.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
The alley is coming up soon. Should I pretend to go in a different direction and loop back?
“You don’t?”
But this man already knows my house is that way.
If I run into him on the way back… I have to come back this way to get home anyway.
“No answer means you must have one. From the same school? Or an older guy?”
The way he smirked while sleazily trying to strike up a conversation was sickening.
Gaeun hunched her shoulders.
Gaeun was the bold kind of girl who, when a teacher told her to ‘wear an undershirt beneath your summer uniform because the boys might stare,’ would snap right back, ‘Then gouge out the eyes of the bastards staring!’ But even for someone like Gaeun, a strange man on a deserted street late at night was terrifying.
Cold sweat was beginning to soak Gaeun’s palms.
“Gaeun-ah!”
Kang Da-hye popped out out of nowhere and linked arms with her.
