The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 4
When he opened his eyes this morning, Eun-sung felt as though he had awakened from a long slumber.
‘I only got two hours of sleep, though.’
He had been stuck in the practice room until three in the morning receiving monthly evaluation feedback.
With so little sleep, he should have been exhausted, but strangely, his mind was clear and his spirits were high.
Looking at the clock, there were still seventeen minutes left until the alarm went off.
Normally, he would have pulled the blanket up and turned over to squeeze in whatever extra sleep he could.
Yet for some reason, he wanted to get to school quickly today.
He wanted to go and check.
Check what?
He had no idea.
“You’re up early, oppa.”
“Yeah.”
“What about breakfast?”
“I’m good. Want me to make you some?”
“I already ate.”
Even while washing up, drying his hair, and putting on the uniform he had hung up the night before, his heart fluttered strangely.
An inexplicably fluttering sensation.
“You’re leaving already, oppa?”
“Yeah.”
In the end, Eun-sung left home twenty minutes earlier than usual.
[This stop is Gogogo High School. The next stop is Jungjungjung Middle School….]
The route to school, which had grown familiar over just three days, was nothing special.
Familiar street trees, familiar apartment complexes, familiar convenience stores, PC bangs, and math academies.
Just as his buoyant mood was about to settle back to normal—
“Ah.”
He realized he had forgotten to drink his milk in his rush to leave.
A certain top idol senior in his fifth year—who would drop by the basement practice room whenever he had free time between busy schedules, gather the male trainees, and offer unsolicited advice—had once said:
‘Take action beforehand so you don’t regret it later! Set a schedule, stretch three times a day, crush two liters of milk daily, and go to bed early!’
…He was talking about height.
It was the only piece of advice from that senior worth taking to heart.
Though Eun-sung, already six centimeters taller than him, couldn’t relate to the senior’s desperation, he still agreed that he needed to grow a lot more.
So he kept cartons of whole milk stocked at home, drinking it constantly.
Even if he skipped breakfast, drinking a 500ml carton of milk before heading out was part of his routine, but he had forgotten in his haste today.
“……”
Currently, Eun-sung’s height was 179.7 centimeters.
Just 0.3 centimeters more and the first digit would change, but that was no easy feat.
Because he secretly cared a great deal about his ambiguous height, Eun-sung glanced at his watch and dropped by the school snack bar.
“What can I get you, handsome?”
“Milk, please.”
“Milk? Chocolate milk?”
“No, plain white milk.”
“We only have small cartons of white milk, though…”
“Give me five, please.”
The storekeeper watched in fascination as Eun-sung lined up the cartons in a row like tiny yogurt drinks and gulped them down one by one.
“You’ve got really big hands, kid. The milk looks tiny in your grip.”
“Yes.”
It was right as he folded the five small, emptied cartons, tossed them into the recycling bin, and moved to leave.
“Ah, but Seo Jae-gyeom is seriously so handsome.”
“Yeah. The best-looking in our whole school.”
“What are you talking about? He’s the best-looking guy I know, period.”
…Is there someone better-looking than me in this school?
His footsteps naturally halted mid-stride.
Looking back, he saw four girls sitting at a long table in the cafeteria adjacent to the snack bar.
Among them, a girl with long, straight hair caught his eye.
I’ve seen her somewhere before.
Eun-sung narrowed his eyes.
While Eun-sung stared at the straight-haired girl who was on the phone without joining the conversation, the other girls, oblivious to his presence, continued chatting.
“Kang Da-hye likes Seo Jae-gyeom, you know.”
“What?! Really?!”
“You didn’t know? It’s painfully obvious.”
Girl 1 sneered, acting as if it was impossible not to know.
“Whoa… but wasn’t Seo Jae-gyeom into Jisu?”
As Girl 2 gaped, Girl 3 chimed in exasperatedly.
“Wait, who is Kang Da-hye? Am I the only one who doesn’t know?”
“That skinny, pale girl in Class 2. Rank 1 in the whole school.”
“She’s rank one?”
“Our homeroom teacher mentioned it before… Across all subjects all of last year, she only got a single question wrong.”
“I didn’t hear that.”
“See? It’s so obvious you don’t study.”
“Wanna die?”
“Anyway, she likes Seo Jae-gyeom?”
“Those two don’t match at all.”
“Well, I mean, anyone’s allowed to have a crush~”
Contrary to her words, Girl 1’s face was dripping with ridicule—as if she was dying to mock Kang Da-hye for liking Seo Jae-gyeom.
Girl 2 asked again.
“But Seo Jae-gyeom likes Jisu. Isn’t Kang Da-hye close with Jisu?”
“Right. That’s why Seo Jae-gyeom hates her.”
“Did Seo Jae-gyeom say that himself? That he hates Kang Da-hye?”
“Well, he didn’t say it out loud. But anyone watching can tell.”
Girl 1 asserted that it was plain as day. Girl 3 chimed in.
“Wow, she must have zero pride. If the guy I liked had a crush on my friend, I’d never let it show.”
“It’s not about pride, she just has no tact.”
“Kids like that are usually oblivious, though. The ones who do nothing but study.”
“True. Just looking at how she carries herself, she doesn’t seem to have any sense.”
“Still, gotta give her credit for courage. Making it so obvious she likes him.”
“She probably isn’t making it obvious on purpose. It just shows.”
“What if she’s doing it on purpose?”
“To keep Jisu from getting Seo Jae-gyeom?”
“Ah, the big picture?”
“Chills.”
After making a whole fuss among themselves, their chatter paused as they ate their bread.
It was Girl 1 who broke the silence again.
The topic, once again, was Kang Da-hye.
“Did you see her backpack? I thought she was an elementary schooler.”
“I think it really is from elementary school. My friend went to both elementary and middle school with her, and said she’s had the exact same backpack since sixth grade.”
“Seriously? Doesn’t it even have holes in it? She should replace it already.”
“Leave her alone. Maybe she doesn’t have the money.”
“All of you, stop it.”
At that moment, the straight-haired girl ended her call and snapped, her face hardening.
The other girls flinched at her stern expression. The straight-haired girl spoke.
“You’re taking it too far. What are you doing? You all know full well that Da-hye and I are close, so why are you badmouthing her in front of me?”
“No, I mean, we were just……”
“Jisu, it looked like things were going well between you and Seo Jae-gyeom, so when she……”
“Why are you making assumptions on your own? I have no interest in Seo Jae-gyeom.”
Only then did Eun-sung remember.
That girl named Jisu—she was the one who had come by their classroom during lunch yesterday to wait for her friend.
And Kang Da-hye.
‘In my class.’
He recalled their homeroom teacher introducing her, saying Kang Da-hye had been the undisputed rank 1 since enrollment, and telling him to ask her if there was anything he didn’t understand due to curriculum differences from his previous school.
‘She looked pretty smart back then.’
Why was she getting talked about like that behind her back?
Letting out a sigh, Eun-sung tossed the milk cartons into the trash bin.
Only then did the girls notice Eun-sung’s presence and turn in surprise, but he was already walking out of the cafeteria.
‘Oblivious. No pride. Carrying an elementary kid’s backpack.’
It sure was easy to tear someone to shreds with words.
Honestly, whether Kang Da-hye got torn apart or not was none of Eun-sung’s business, but perhaps because the words had been so harsh, what he’d heard kept swirling in his head.
As he walked into the fourth-floor hallway where the second-year classrooms were, chewing over those thoughts—
“Aaargh!”
A phone rolled to a stop at Eun-sung’s feet.
An old model that looked years out of date. He picked up the scratched-up smartphone.
‘…Unrequited Love Playlist?’
There were ninety-eight songs on it.
Lifting his head, Eun-sung saw Kang Da-hye, her face flushed crimson and eyes brimming with tears.
A surge of irritation washed over him.
He didn’t know why.
Why are you crying every time I see you?
‘Every time I see her?’
Without knowing why that thought had even crossed his mind, Eun-sung spoke up.
“Is that so? Da-hye knows a lot of good songs? That’s surprising.”
“No! I don’t! I don’t!”
“No, she does. I saw it. She was throwing a party of masterpieces all by herself.”
“Really? Da-hye, don’t party alone—invite us too.”
“What?!”
“Then Da-hye will pick the song by the time of the performance assessment.”
Ignoring my frantic hand-waving protests, the teacher turned back toward the piano keys.
I whipped around and glared at Jung Eun-sung.
—Are you crazy?
Ripping a page from my notebook, I scribbled a note and handed it to the classmate behind me.
“Pass this to Jung Eun-sung, please.”
I watched with blazing eyes as the note was relayed to Jung Eun-sung.
Receiving the note, Jung Eun-sung flipped the roughly folded paper front and back.
Then he casually tossed it backward straight into the trash can.
“……”
“……”
“Teacher. Kang Da-hye is glaring at me.”
“Da-hye, the teacher is right here. No matter how handsome Eun-sung is, you need to look forward during class, don’t you?”
“……”
In that moment, neither the despair of forgetting everything I learned in high school nor the embarrassment over my teenage emotional playlist even crossed my mind.
The only thing left in my head was a burning desire for revenge against Jung Eun-sung……!
Without caring in the slightest that Seo Jae-gyeom, who had dumped me just hours ago, was looking back and forth between me and Jung Eun-sung with displeasure.
‘Just you wait.’
This is war.
Next period.
“Who wants to come up and solve this practice problem?”
“Teacher! Jung Eun-sung says he wants to do it.”
The next period.
“Got it? Who wants to read the next paragraph?”
“Teacher. Kang Da-hye says she wants to read.”
“Could anyone give up their break to help carry these to the staff room?”
“Teacher! Jung Eun-sung raised his hand. I saw him.”
“Teacher. I think Kang Da-hye is on her phone.”
“Teacher! Jung Eun-sung isn’t studying, he’s drawing pictures.”
“Teacher, Kang Da-hye is……”
“Teacher, Jung Eun-sung is……”
“Kang Da-hye, Jung Eun-sung!”
Eventually, at lunchtime, the Homeroom Teacher barged into the classroom, face flushed red, and called out our names.
