The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 35
In the end, we ended up writing our statements.
“I’m telling you, she bought me jelly at the convenience store! Grinning and acting all coy, saying, ‘Mister, why don’t you try one of these…’!”
Set to the backdrop of the dwarf’s genuinely aggrieved whining.
“Look here, students, do you really have to go this far?”
Fueled by the nonsense spewing from a police officer who was busy empathizing with the perpetrator.
“He’s still an adult. How can you corner a person like this over an honest mistake? Just imagine if your own fathers were treated this way somewhere.”
Quick side note. What does “He’s still an adult” mean in South Korea?
: A phrase used when an adult does something wrong to someone young enough to be their child, but doesn’t want to apologize.
Hallmark of an adult who says “Still, they’re an adult” or “How dare you talk to someone your parents’ age”: They are fully aware that the one in the wrong is the adult.
“From what I can tell, he has a family too. Do you know how devastating something like this could be to the head of a household, huh?”
‘I have a family too… A mother sweet as a rabbit and myself, wild as a monkey.’
“It doesn’t look good for young folks to push an older person so hard. Adults can make mistakes when they don’t know any better…”
‘If you’ve lived that long, you should act your age.’
After living long enough to be called someone’s father, with zero achievements or accomplishments to show for it, he sexually harasses a teenager—and now he wants to extort respect from young people purely because he’s “older”?
Did someone leave respect on deposit with us?
If respect were based on age, we’d have to respect Lee Wan-yong too. That guy is ancient. Born in ’58. 1858. He’s so old he’s already dead!
Just then, Jung Eun-sung leaned in toward me and whispered.
“Is that the kind of cop like No Deok-sul?”
“Exactly.”
Look at that, slipping in some Korean history review in the middle of this.
However, this No Deok-sul issue was resolved in an unexpected direction.
Bang!
“Da-hye! Gaeun!”
A booming voice forged through decades of academy experience. High defense and attack power honed from dealing with nightmare parents.
“Where is that crazy perverted bastard?!”
An adult. The exact adult we so desperately needed right now!
“Director!”
It was Sein’s aunt and the director of Ibaji Academy!
[Director]
Da-hye, today is your last day~^^ Thank you so much for all your hard workㅎ. Was there anything difficult while working here…?
21:55
Ma’amㅠㅠ Please help us
22:40
I believe our academy’s phone calls are automatically recorded. Could I possibly get one of the audio files?
“Girls, did you finish your statements? What? You only just received them? Why?!”
Striding forward, the director glared at the officer who had been spouting nonsense just moments ago.
“Lady—”
The officer attempted to brush her off with a look that asked what this was all about, but—
“Lady?! Who here is a lady?! To a tax-paying citizen of South Korea, lady?! What’s your name?!”
“Uh, ma’am. Please calm down first…”
“Come to think of it, their parents aren’t even here. Hey, officers! How long ago did these kids leave the academy, and you’re only giving them the statement forms now? What have you been doing until this hour, leaving kids sitting here all alone without a guardian?!”
“Ma’am, please calm down…”
“Calm down? What do you mean, calm down?! Were you trying to sweep this under the rug just because the victims are kids?! Girls, tell me everything!”
“Quiet down! If you keep raising your voice like this, we will arrest you for obstruction of justice!”
“What? You couldn’t even lock up a perverted bastard running rampant against children, but because someone makes a little noise in your workplace, you threaten an arrest right away?! Go ahead, arrest me! I’ll report the guy who called me ‘lady’ earlier, too! Do it! Go on, do it! Do it right now!”
…There was no need for me to step in any further.
“If an adult got old and did wrong by a student, they should apologize! That’s what makes an adult!”
“A family?! That pervert has a family too?! A man with a family did something like that?!”
“Whose side are the police on anyway?!”
A stream of golden quotes I wanted to write down poured from her mouth.
Ha.
So satisfying.
* * *
“I’m sorry, Director. At such a late hour.”
By the time we finally finished our statements after all the ordeal, it was well past midnight.
Gaeun gave a statement about the persistent harassment and distress she had suffered from the dwarf, as well as today’s assault, and I gave a statement about the man shoving me.
There were still a few loose ends to wrap up going forward, but for now, it was over.
The problem was…
‘The Stalking Crime Punishment Act doesn’t exist yet.’
After ruining Kim Gaeun’s March, he’ll probably get off with a slap on the wrist. Crazy world.
It probably won’t even be a slap on the wrist.
More like a cotton candy tap?
“My students ran into a pervert and are sitting in a police station—what does the time matter?!”
“Still…”
“I’m going to sue him too. For obstruction of business. For calling the academy under false pretenses, impersonating a parent, and harassing our students.”
“Can you really press charges for that?”
“Who knows!”
The dwarf, who had been whining in the meeting room about how wronged he was and calling us gold diggers, was taken away by his wife when she arrived.
If it were me, getting caught creeping on minors of all things is something I’d rather die than tell my wife, but criminals really do think differently.
He seemed to actually have a daughter, too.
☆Your dad goes outside and hits on high schoolers★
It’s the kind of insult where, even as an online hate comment, people would say, “Whoa, that’s crossing the line…” Yet here it exists in real life.
“It’s so late there won’t be any buses. How are you two getting home? Did you contact your parents?”
“I often go home late after the study room anyway, so I’m fine.”
“What about you, Gaeun? If you want, I can call them right now. Did you tell your parents about this?”
“No.”
Gaeun smiled awkwardly.
“If my parents find out, I’ll just get scolded for no reason. It’s better not to say anything.”
“Oh, dear.”
Perhaps already well aware of Gaeun’s parents, the director didn’t press the matter. Patting Gaeun’s cheek as she smiled, the director said,
“Still, you should have told other adults. Your school homeroom teacher… or if that was uncomfortable, at least the academy teachers.”
“Actually, I did tell Teacher Sung-il.”
“Right, Teacher Sung-il is the homeroom teacher for your Class A. But why didn’t he report it to me?”
“He… asked if I was bragging.”
“What? Bragging about what?”
“If I was bragging about being pretty and having men talk to me outside.”
“That bastard…!”
The director opened her mouth, then rolled her eyes and shut it. Looking up at the sky and letting out a deep sigh, she pulled her car keys from her pocket.
“Alright, then I’ll drop Gaeun off. It’s on my way anyway. How about our handsome friend over there, how are you getting home?”
“I’m going to walk Kang Da-hye home and then head back.”
“Huh?”
That was news to me.
Yet Jung Eun-sung acted completely natural, and the director nodded with a pleased expression.
“Da-hye, take a cab with our handsome friend.”
Pulling a fifty-thousand-won bill from her wallet, the director pressed it into my hand.
“Oh, Director. I can’t accept this much money.”
“When an adult gives it to you, you say ‘thank you’ and take it.”
“Still…”
“You did such a great job working here all this time, Da-hye, so think of it as a bonus.”
“…Thank you. Truly. For everything.”
I knew that even for an adult, stepping up for someone else’s trouble like this wasn’t easy.
‘In fact, it might be even harder precisely because she’s an adult.’
Adults are already overwhelmed and busy just taking care of themselves, they have so much to take responsibility for if something goes wrong after stepping in, and they’ve had far more experience getting stabbed in the back after acting out of goodwill than kids have.
“I did it because you’re like a daughter to me. Thinking about my own child going through something like that…”
“…Like a daughter.”
“Yes. I’ll make sure the police strictly warn that man and his wife so they won’t dare come to your school. But if any trouble arises, make sure to tell me right away.”
“Yes. Thank you, Director.”
“Alright, alright. Hurry and take that. A cab is coming.”
The director raised her hand toward a taxi approaching from down the street.
“I’ll go pull my car out from the parking lot. Gaeun, wait here for a moment.”
Once the director walked away, Gaeun took my hand.
“Thank you, Da-hye.”
“Yeah. Make sure you engrave this grace into your bones.”
I said it as a joke, but Gaeun nodded.
“I’ll engrave it on my tombstone too.”
After adding that with complete seriousness, Gaeun continued.
“I heard from the police earlier that a patrol request had been submitted on the Patrol Sinmungo asking them to patrol near our academy around that time. That’s why the police happened to be in the area. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“I looked it up and found out there was a system like that.”
“If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would’ve happened to me today. Truly.”
Watching Gaeun emphasize the word truly, a sudden chill ran down my spine.
‘Before the regression…’
I hadn’t worked a part-time job at Ibaji Academy.
Then… back then, did Gaeun have to endure all of this completely alone?
This work is a work of fiction, and the police reporting and investigation procedures depicted in this episode do not reflect real-life procedures.
(Patrol Sinmungo is also a system that did not exist during the year in which this story is set.)