The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The Top Student Conceals Her Regression
A low voice read the words written on the screen.
“I want you. Jae.”
I slowly traced my gaze up from the large hand holding my phone.
Lightly tanned skin. A neat school uniform that didn’t match his delinquent-like impression. Clear, striking eyes and pretty lips that older girls would go crazy chasing after.
“…Jung Eun-sung?”
It was Jung Eun-sung.
The last person I saw before my regression as I fell from the rooftop.
The man who, after all the other group members withdrew and amidst various scandals and incidents, went on to become one of South Korea’s undisputed top actors eleven years later.
Yet right now.
He was just an eighteen-year-old boy, still a trainee under a major entertainment agency.
The new face who transferred into our class for the new semester. The center of attention.
Along with Seo Jae-gyeom, he was the reason girls from other classes made up all sorts of excuses—like ‘Could you lend me your gym clothes?’ or ‘Can I borrow a textbook?’—just to drop by our classroom.
The main culprit who, after just two days, drove our homeroom teacher to irritation, making him paste a huge sign on the classroom door that read: <NO ENTRY FOR OTHER CLASSES!!!!>.
The only classmate whose future self I knew.
“Oh, it’s Jung Eun-sung.”
“Eun-sung-ah, hi!”
“Eun-sung-ah, do you remember me?”
Even during the brief moment Jung Eun-sung and I stood facing each other in the hallway, girls giggled, waved at him, and walked past.
“Jung Eun-sung……”
I looked at Jung Eun-sung, who had suddenly become eleven years younger, with a slight surge of emotion.
Meeting my gaze, my eyes still brimming with un-wiped tears, Jung Eun-sung wore a lukewarm expression.
“Jung Eun-sung, you……”
“Kang Da-hye, you……”
“You were short in high school?”
“Why are you crying?”
“…….”
“…….”
Oops.
I should’ve only thought that to myself.
Jung Eun-sung crumpled his face.
“I’m short?”
Looking up at the ceiling in disbelief, he let out a dry laugh and straightened his back. But doing that didn’t make him any taller.
Looking at Jung Eun-sung’s Adam’s apple right in front of my nose, my voice trailed off.
“No, but seriously, you really are short……”
Objectively speaking, he might not be considered short, but if a guy you had to crane your neck to look up at just a few hours ago suddenly shrank by about ten centimeters, anyone would feel the same way I did.
For the record, Jung Eun-sung in his late twenties was 187 cm tall. And that was just his official profile—there were rumors he was actually taller.
Right now?
He seemed to be around 179 cm.
I think he was already over 180 cm when he debuted, so does that mean he’ll shoot up in a single year?
Come to think of it, during our senior year, I feel like I saw Jung Eun-sung striding along, grumbling that he had to buy a new school uniform after just one year……
“It’s okay. You’ll grow soon.”
I offered comfort, but Jung Eun-sung didn’t even pretend to listen.
Ignoring my words, Jung Eun-sung cast his gaze down at my phone in his hand.
Jung Eun-sung’s thumb swiped across the screen, scrolling down.
Anyone looking would think it was his phone.
Looking through even a close friend’s phone like that is rude….
“Huh?”
Come to think of it.
At this point, Jung Eun-sung transferred here less than a week ago, so we should definitely still be awkward around each other.
Aren’t we talking way too naturally?
Why is he acting so comfortable?
……Could it be?
“…Jung Eun-sung, by any chance, do you remember—”
“‘A one-sided love. Might it become boring. Even if I try hard to find only your ugly habits.’”
“…Huh?”
Jung Eun-sung cut off my question just as I was about to ask, ‘Did you regress too?’
Looking down arrogantly at my phone, Jung Eun-sung began reading out the highlighted lyrics from my playlist one after another.
In a voice that sounded utterly bored to death.
“‘For. Just. One day. I find myself praying. That I were the girl by your side.’”
“…….”
“‘To a changed love. Anytime. So you can come. Right into my arms. Fall asleep to-oo-oo-o-o-o-o-me~ Woh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh~
’”
“Stop! Stop!”
You crazy bastard!
“Give it back!”
I snatched my phone back.
Contrary to how tightly he had been holding it as if he wouldn’t let go, Jung Eun-sung gave it up obediently.
Looking straight at me as my face burned bright red, Jung Eun-sung curled up the corner of his mouth into a smirk.
“There’s no end to the bookmarked lyrics.”
“None of your business—”
“Must be having quite the grand unrequited crush, huh?”
“…….”
“Who’s Jae?”
“Be quiet!”
That Jae is in our class right now! I scolded him, covering his mouth with my hand.
Looking down with just his eyes at my hand pressed firmly against his lips, Jung Eun-sung shook off my hand with a slight tilt of his head, not even fazed.
“Why did you read that out loud!”
“I can’t read it?”
“Of course you can’t!”
“Why?”
“Because it’s my personal privacy!”
“That song is your privacy? A song that swept the charts decades ago?”
“It wasn’t decades ago! And masterpieces are timeless!”
“Right. Masterpieces are timeless. And since it’s a famous song, it’s obviously not your privacy either.”
“Not the song, the phone! My phone is private!”
“Ah, Kang Da-hye-nim’s unrequited love playlist? Yeah, that could certainly qualify as—”
“Hey!”
“Your face turned red.”
“…….”
It’s because I’m humiliated. Humiliated.
Why on earth was the me from eleven years ago so brimming with sentimentality……
Seeing me huffing and puffing, Jung Eun-sung tilted his head slightly toward his shoulder.
“Why, are you embarrassed by your love for Jae? After gathering…… ninety-eight songs.”
When he said ‘ninety-eight songs,’ Jung Eun-sung craned his neck and peered at my phone.
“Could you mind your own business?”
I retorted curtly and tapped furiously on the screen of my retrieved phone.
Delete this damn playlist right now! Delete!
“Why delete it? It’s a party of masterpieces.”
“The party’s over.”
“Why? Did you get dumped or something?”
“…….”
This guy doesn’t remember. One hundred percent.
If he had his memories, he couldn’t possibly say this.
I kept my mouth shut tight and glared at Jung Eun-sung.
A face that still held boyish charm stared back at me intently.
Flawless skin without the cheek scar that Jung Eun-sung’s fans always lamented.
If he had a finished, fully matured face eleven years later, as a boy right now, he gave off a vibe full of future promise.
In the midst of admiring his face, I answered Jung Eun-sung’s call a beat late.
“Kang Da-hye.”
“…Huh?”
“If the other person pretends not to notice even when you’re shouting at the top of your lungs behind their back, that love is already doomed.”
“…….”
“Give up and look for another guy.”
“…….”
“Ah, don’t forget to share the playlist before deleting it.”
“You crazy…”
“Hehehe……”
“You two, what are you doing in the hallway!”
The homeroom teacher from the next class, who was walking over while smacking the wall with a bamboo clapper, broke up the space between me, standing there with my mouth open in disbelief, and Jung Eun-sung.
“Get inside quickly!”
Just you wait.
I glared daggers at Jung Eun-sung.
Receiving my glare, Jung Eun-sung let out a soft chuckle and stepped into the classroom first.
Just as I was about to follow him inside.
Click.
The door shut right in front of my nose.
“…….”
Beyond the closed classroom door, Jung Eun-sung smiled with his eyes.
This bastard?
* * *
Was Jung Eun-sung always this kind of personality?
[What I know about Jung Eun-sung]
- When he transferred to our school, he had already appeared in several commercials and music videos.
- Searching Jung Eun-sung’s name on portal sites brings up his photo, age, and current high school (our school).
- Before my regression, fans occasionally came all the way to our school to see him.
- So, was Jung Eun-sung originally this kind of person? I have no idea! I can’t remember!
“Da-hye-ya, are you okay?”
“Huh?”
“You were crying earlier.”
“Ah. I’m okay. I’m totally fine now.”
I replied in a low voice to the friend whispering beside me (the one who showed me my seat earlier).
In the music room, where we sat in an S-curve pattern from the front row according to our student numbers, Seo Jae-gyeom, completely oblivious to me behind him, was responding with charming aegyo to the teacher’s jokes.
Jung Eun-sung’s side was quiet.
‘Jung Eun-sung’s personality…… I don’t know. What was he like?’
Later on, we were in the same club so we started speaking casually, but at the beginning of the semester, we barely exchanged a word.
Could you say we were nothing more and nothing less than two people existing in the same classroom?
Jung Eun-sung suddenly acting like that after my regression caught me a bit off guard too.
“So, everyone. You know you’re taking a singing test for your performance assessment, right?”
The Music Teacher sitting at the piano broke my train of thought.
“You guys don’t study hard for music exams anyway, saying you don’t need it for college. So starting this year, I’m planning to increase the weight of performance assessments. In the first semester, we’ll have a singing test, and in the second semester, a composition test.”
“Composition?!”
“Can we plagiarize?”
“Alright, quiet down. I’ll let you choose the song for the singing test. What do you want to sing?”
“The national anthem?”
“Can you memorize all the lyrics from verse one to verse four?”
“No.”
“Then dismissed.”
“…….”
“No other opinions?”
“…….”
“If there are no opinions, we’re singing the school anthem.”
Not the school anthem.
Our school anthem has a rap section.
Someone please offer an idea.
Thinking that, I looked back and made eye contact with Jung Eun-sung, who was resting his chin on his hand and looking forward.
When Jung Eun-sung blinked quietly at me,
“^_^ㅗ”
I gave him a smile.
At that, Jung Eun-sung suddenly raised his hand high.
“Teacher.”
“Oh, yes. Eun-sung, do you have an opinion?”
“Kang Da-hye knows a lot of masterpieces.”
“…….”
…This bastard????????????
