The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 22
Chapter 22
The Top Ranker Hides Her Regression
“Kim Gaeun, why’d you leave without me!”
I linked my arm with Kim Gaeun’s and yanked her firmly toward me.
The middle-aged man sticking so close to her that someone might have mistaken him for her father flinched and stepped back.
Intentionally avoiding looking his way, I pressed my phone to my ear. Speaking into the black screen, I poured out words as if I were in the middle of a call.
“Yeah, yeah, Dad! I found Gaeun. Ugh, I don’t know—I totally told her we should go together, but she went ahead! Where are you, Dad? Ah, that convenience store? Okay, got it~! We’re on our way!”
“……”
“Kim Gaeun! My dad says he’s right over there. He says to hurry up since there’s nowhere to park. Let’s go! Wait, who’s that mister?”
Grabbing Gaeun’s arm, I looked at the middle-aged man who still appeared flustered.
‘Mid-fifties, early 170s in height.’
Height, hairstyle, the approximate style and color of his clothes. Etching a physical description into my memory in case I had to report this to the police later, I asked Gaeun—pretending to whisper, but loud enough for everyone to hear:
“Gaeun, is that your dad?”
“…No.”
“Then a relative?”
“…No.”
“What? Then he’s nobody! Let’s go!”
Dad said if he gets a ticket, he’s taking it out of my allowance. Invoking my nonexistent father with every breath, I dragged Kim Gaeun along by the arm without giving her a choice.
Somewhere bright. Somewhere brightly lit with lots of people, no matter what.
As luck would have it, we ended up heading toward Gugugu High School, which was neither the way Kim Gaeun was originally going nor the way to my house, but it didn’t matter. As we walked, I babbled whatever nonsense came to mind at the top of my lungs.
“So our homeroom teacher wrote an R-rated fanfic… and Jaegyeom got caught reading it during class… so the punishment was going up front and reading it out loud……”
My steps, which had started out pretending to be casual, gradually quickened.
By the time we reached the entrance of the commercial street where Father’s Touch and Olive Yingying were located, both of us were sprinting.
“Haa, pant…”
I looked over at Kim Gaeun, who was gasping for breath.
Her face, usually set in a slight frown, was deathly pale. Without either of us realizing who initiated it, our clasped hands were slick with cold, clammy sweat.
Our eyes met. Nodding toward the shop right next to us, I asked,
“Wanna grab a cola before we go?”
“…To be honest, he’s not a complete stranger.”
I was hungry, but eating now would ruin a good night’s sleep—and that would interfere with my studies tomorrow.
While I held back my hunger and sipped water, Kim Gaeun sat across from me, clutching her backpack and sipping her cola through a straw.
Only when the ice-filled cup made a rattling, slurping sound did she finally manage to speak.
“I think he works at the moving company down the street. I ran into him once at the convenience store during our academy break……”
He was waiting in line to check out first, and I was behind him.
The drink he grabbed must have been a buy-one-get-one promo. The cashier told him to go grab another one, but he didn’t understand and looked confused, so I just grabbed it for him. I didn’t have much break time left, so I wanted to check out quickly and leave.
Then he thanked me and handed me the extra one, you know? It happened to be something I liked, so I took it.
The next day, I ran into him again while eating ramen at the convenience store. It felt awkward to pretend I didn’t know him, so I said hello. Then he asked if I was studying without even having dinner and bought me a triangle kimbap…… so I gave him one of the jellies I was eating.
But ever since that day, he kept……
“Acting like you’re close, right?”
“…Yeah.”
He asked if I went to Gogogo High School, if I attended Ibaji Academy down the street, and how the academy was since his daughter was entering high school soon, so I told him all about it.
“…But starting from some point, whenever I walked out after academy was over, that mister was standing out front. At first, I thought it was a coincidence……”
“And it wasn’t.”
“Yeah. …It felt like he was waiting for me. He kept following me around…… Saying he’d buy me dinner if I hadn’t eaten, that the pub food nearby was delicious and it was fine to go if I was with an adult. Saying I was like a daughter to him.”
“What a lunatic pervert.”
I stated flatly.
“Isn’t that a stalker? Why is he waiting outside an academy for a schoolgirl he doesn’t even know?”
He should go pick up his own daughter! Seriously! Agitated, I slammed my fist down on the table. But Kim Gaeun looked timid and unsure.
“We need to do something about this right now!”
“No, but…”
“But what!”
“What if it really was a coincidence, and he was just being nice because I felt like a daughter, but I misunderstood and went after an innocent person? What if I’m wrongfully accusing a good person…”
“Even if he’s a good person, making you uncomfortable is still making you uncomfortable!”
What kind of logic is that? I banged the table three times in frustration.
Reaching across the table, I took Kim Gaeun’s hand. Meeting her startled gaze, I said,
“If he were truly a good person, he should understand that you could feel uncomfortable in a situation like this.”
Even if his intentions weren’t bad, he should acknowledge that his very presence can cause you anxiety and keep his distance.
“The moment someone gets offended and goes, ‘That wasn’t my intention, why are you twisting it?’, that person is NOT a good person!”
The best kind of man is one who leaves a girl alone!
“That middle-aged man who made you uncomfortable—someone so much older than you—doesn’t show you any consideration, so why are you the only one showing him consideration and feeling guilty? Are you really that saintly?”
That’s not being nice, that’s just being naive!
Just because he shared some cheap buy-one-get-one drink and bought you one triangle kimbap?
Look how far he’s crossed the line after tossing a couple of cheap items your way!
“Wake up! This world is harsh!”
“…Okay.”
“Good.”
Phew.
“What about your parents? Have you told them?”
“…No.”
“Why?”
“Actually, something similar happened before…… and Dad asked if it happened because I wasn’t carrying myself properly, saying if something like this ever happened again, he’d shave my head……”
“……”
So it wasn’t that she didn’t tell them; she couldn’t.
“What about your mom?”
“Mom said… there are a lot of weird people in the world and things could get dangerous if I’m not careful, so I shouldn’t stir up trouble and just swallow my temper and endure it.”
“……”
With all due respect, Mother, THIS is the big danger right now.
“Are there any other adults?”
“There’s my grandmother, but if I told her, she’d probably just say, ‘Why does a girl need to go to an academy anyway?’”
“……”
Let’s stay calm.
“Can’t you stop going to the academy or switch to another one?”
“My grades went up a lot after attending Ibaji. If I say I want to quit without a reason, my dad will kill me.”
“What about telling the academy teachers?”
“It’s useless. I already told my homeroom teacher.”
“At the academy?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“He asked if I was bragging about being pretty.”
“……”
I’m pissed.
Just looking at Kim Gaeun’s face, I could tell how much this issue had been eating away at her.
A person only has a limited amount of time and energy each day.
How many kids in this world have their energy drained by useless garbage like this, unable to focus on what they actually need to do?
“So, Kim Gaeun, what do you want to do?”
I snatched the cup from Kim Gaeun, who had drunk cola until her lips turned blue and was now sucking down ice water. Handing her my water and telling her to drink this instead, I said:
“I can walk you home after academy for about a month.”
“I can’t let you do that. It’s dangerous for you, too.”
“True. Plus, it’s not a fundamental solution.”
“……”
“There’s a second method… though honestly, I doubt it’ll work at all.”
Still, wanna give it a shot anyway? I asked Gaeun.
Gaeun, who had been nodding along saying she’d follow anything as long as it didn’t involve telling her parents, suddenly asked:
“Wait, is it okay for you to spend time on this? Aren’t you going to study? You tremble over a single point.”
“With you looking like death warmed over right beside me, do you think I could study?”
“……”
“Just kidding. I have trauma when it comes to older men blocking a schoolgirl’s future.”
“……”
“If you’re done, let’s get up. Time to leave.”
“…Okay.”
“And for the record, I don’t tremble over a single point, okay? I tremble over zero-point-one points. Don’t go underestimating me.”
The next day. School.
“Hey, of course you should report it!”
“Right, you have to report him!”
“Tell the police to stake out and catch him!”
Sein and Su-a shouted in outrage. Over the shoulders of the girls stomping their feet in disbelief and calling him crazy, Doyeon sent an inquiring look.
Because Kim Gaeun was between us, she was minding the mood and couldn’t join in.
‘I’ll have to resolve that issue later, too.’
“Let’s go report it right after school today!”
To Sein, who was clenching her fists, I said sheepishly,
“Actually…”
“Huh?”
“We already tried reporting it yesterday……”
Because with incidents like this, it was better to report them as quickly as possible……
Reporting it immediately after it happened served as a form of proof that I had felt intense distress from the incident.
“You reported it?!”
“What happened?!”
“…Well.”
Sighing, I brushed my hair back.
To those expecting a refreshing resolution:
I apologize in advance for being unable to give you what you want.
Right now, all I have on the table are choking sweet potatoes—would you care to have some anyway?
(Rummaging around)
