The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 44
Thirty minutes ago.
Having settled into her seat in the library, Class 2-1’s Han Ji-soo thought to herself:
‘I don’t have my eraser.’
She had lent it to her desk mate earlier and hadn’t gotten it back.
The problem was that it was Ji-soo’s lucky eraser.
Having it was the only way she could concentrate and do well on exams. Whenever it was away from her, she felt an anxious sense that all the knowledge she’d studied was draining away with every passing second.
She knew it was superstition. But Ji-soo took such superstitions very seriously—to the point where she wouldn’t eat eggs, which resembled the number ‘0’, for a whole month before exams.
“……”
I’ll just run to Beta Stationery in front of the school and buy the same one.
Once she made up her mind, she felt an urgent need to get the eraser into her hands immediately, so Ji-soo hurried out.
Slipping on her friend’s clean-scented school uniform cardigan—which had probably been drenched in fabric softener to mask the basement smell—she headed down the stairs.
“Oh, Jung Eun-sung!”
On her way down, she bumped into Jung Eun-sung from Class 2.
“Hi!”
“Hi.”
Jung Eun-sung walked right past without even meeting her eyes.
Left alone on the stairs, Ji-soo muttered awkwardly to herself.
“…He doesn’t act like that around Kang Da.”
Well, they were in the same class, so maybe they got close. Same with Seo Jae-gyeom.
Dahye, who had always just been known as “Han Ji-soo’s friend,” seemed to be getting quite popular lately, which was nice to see.
Imagining Dahye and Seo Jae-gyeom with their heads together in the classroom right now, she walked through the school gates.
Outside the school, most of the students had already cleared out.
As Ji-soo waited at the crosswalk, a group of boys lingering near the gates approached from behind.
“?”
By the time Ji-soo looked up from her phone, she was already surrounded.
Hair in the back that was too long for a student. The blatant stench of cigarette smoke. The boys surrounding Ji-soo snickered amongst themselves.
“Hey, it is her. Her name’s right on the name tag.”
“I waited over thirty minutes and only saw ugly chicks coming out, so I thought Song Yeo-reum was bullshitting us again.”
“Wait, why does she look familiar to me?”
“You probably saw her in the cafeteria last year.”
“Hey there, Dahye?”
The sleaziest-looking one of the bunch spoke up with a grin. Ji-soo only looked up at him without answering. Seeing that, the sleaze lifted a hand and tapped her cheek lightly.
“We’re not scary oppas. You know Yeo-reum, right? Song Yeo-reum. We’re her friends.”
“……”
“We just want to help Yeo-reum and Dahye make up. Why don’t you come with us oppas for a quick chat somewhere?”
“……”
“Oh, by the way, oppa hits girls too, you know?”
All done.
“What is this……?”
It took way too long…….
“Seo Jae-gyeom, you’re leaving right away, right? Then drop this off at the teachers’ office on your way down. I’m going to grab Ji-soo.”
I hurried Seo Jae-gyeom along, who had seemed completely out of it for a while now.
Just a little while ago, he was totally fine, pulling smooth moves like asking me to pluck an eyelash off his cheek—but ever since Jung Eun-sung dropped by, he’d been in a weird state.
He looked like he’d been hit with some kind of shock, but……
Not my problem.
“Then I’m heading out first! Thanks for the help!”
Rushing out of the classroom, I dialed Ji-soo.
She didn’t pick up.
While listening to the ring of the dial tone, I had already made it up to the library. I pushed the door open and walked in.
“…?”
Ji-soo wasn’t there.
What? Her bag is right here.
“Did she go to the bathroom?”
Tilting my head, I stepped out of the library for now.
Just as I was about to call her once more—
[010-@@@@-**]
An unknown number called.
“Hello…?”
—Kang Da-hye?
“Who’s this…?”
—It’s Bang Eunji.
“Bang Eunji?”
The Bang Eunji I know?
She’s calling me?
Leaving aside how she even got my number, why?
But Bang Eunji’s voice sounded quite urgent, so I answered obediently for now.
“What’s going on?”
—Where are you?
“I’m at school.”
—Where at school?
“Seventh floor.”
—Stay right there.
“Wait, but I need to…….”
Click.
“I need to find Ji-soo, though……”
I stared blankly at my phone after the line went dead before I could even finish my sentence. I tried calling Ji-soo one more time, but there was still no answer.
Soon, Bang Eunji burst out of the elevator.
“Hey!”
Spotting me standing in front of the library, Bang Eunji came running over, panting heavily.
“Hey, we’ve got a huge problem.”
“A huge problem?”
Was there anything that could be considered a mutual “huge problem” between Bang Eunji and me?
“Han Ji-soo……”
“…?!”
There was!
“So those oppas took Han Ji-soo. Thinking she was you.”
“Wait, what…?”
What business did twenty-year-olds have meddling in a high school fight anyway?
And what is this, the early 2000s? Delinquents loitering in front of a school and snatching kids on their way home?
What kind of early-2000s internet novel vibe is this……?
What are they even going to do with Ji-soo?
Make her kneel and drop some cringey line like, ‘I’m the top dog at Technical High. Did you mess with my sworn sister? -_-^’?
If I’d known this would happen, I would have told Ji-soo to date Seo Jae-gyeom earlier!
If Ji-soo were Seo Jae-gyeom’s girlfriend, he would’ve rushed off to save her!
Ah, should I call it his chick instead of girlfriend? ㅇㅁㅇ!
(-_-;;)
tOtALly aBsUrD…☆
No, more importantly.
I asked back, puzzled.
“There’s no way they could’ve just taken Ji-soo like that, though?”
Because Ji-soo had…
Just then, my phone rang again.
[Ji-soo’s Mother]
Showing Bang Eunji the name displayed on the screen, I said,
“There’s someone whose entire job is picking Ji-soo up…….”
That person parks in front of the school every single day waiting to pick her up.
Ji-soo’s mother is very sensitive about her safety.
“You probably know too, right? That black car always parked at the front gate?”
Back in middle school, when a male staff member in the administration office tapped Ji-soo on the shoulder, that person saw it and reported it to her mother—and the staff member got replaced.
Even today, Ji-soo and I going to eat tteokbokki was only possible after we walked out the front gates together and got confirmation from that driver that ‘she’s going with Kang Da-hye.’
And even after that, they probably would have followed behind us to check whether we actually went to eat tteokbokki.
Sure enough.
—I was so shocked when I got the call just now. What on earth happened? I heard they mistook our Ji-soo for you, Dahye.
“Yes, I just heard about it too. How is Ji-soo?”
—Ji-soo is fine. I’m on my way directly to where those little punks gathered. Could you come over there right now too, Dahye?
I told her I would and hung up.
Checking the address Ji-soo’s mother sent, I spoke to Bang Eunji.
“Who all was there yesterday?”
“Baek Eunju, Yang Dajung, Kim Haein…….”
Seo Jae-gyeom’s ex-girlfriends.
Pretty, intimidating girls who would have played the secondary female leads if this were an internet novel.
The fact that they conspired with Song Yeo-reum to crush someone who, in their eyes, was just Loser #1 was ridiculous enough, but the fact that it unraveled in such an unexpected way was utterly baffling.
‘This is literally blowing my nose without lifting a finger.’
Pure profit for me.
But.
“Bang Eunji, why are you telling me this? You’re Song Yeo-reum’s friend.”
“Well.”
“Don’t tell me this is part of some elaborate trap too?”
“Fuck no, it’s not!”
“Then why?”
“…Because I want to see Song Yeo-reum ruined.”
“Uh-huh…?”
“You’re smart. I thought if I told you in advance, you’d screw her over.”
“……”
I was asking why you wanted to see Song Yeo-reum ruined in the first place, Bang Eunji…….
“Well, whatever. Song Yeo-reum is definitely getting ruined, just like you wanted.”
Ji-soo’s mother stops at nothing when it comes to her daughter.
It’s a bit less so now, but back in middle school, every single kid in our school knew her mother’s face.
In the first place, how else could an ordinary girl like me have become friends with Ji-soo?
All the popular, flashy kids got filtered out by Ji-soo’s mother, leaving only plain Janes like me.
If Ji-soo had been even slightly prickly or timid, she would’ve been mocked endlessly by other kids because of her mother.
Anyway. So…….
I nodded toward the still-huffing Bang Eunji.
“Let’s go.”
To see Song Yeo-reum go down in flames.
By the time Bang Eunji and I arrived, the whole situation was already over.
Song Yeo-reum, Seo Jae-gyeom’s ex-girlfriends, and every single one of those pathetic losers hanging out with high schoolers despite being adults were hauled away.
There were four police cars parked there.
Even the police officer who had ignored Gaeun and me during the dwarf incident was there, bowing ninety degrees at the waist to Ji-soo’s mother. I was so startled I thought he was a completely different person.
To be honest, I didn’t really understand why I was called all the way out here either.
Ji-soo went through that because of me, so coming here made sense in principle…… but Ji-soo herself wasn’t even here.
“Ma’am, where’s Ji-soo?”
“She went to the hospital. She must have been shaken up.”
Ji-soo’s mother patted my head, saying she’d have Ji-soo call once her checkup was done, before leaving with the police.
A breeze blew past.
In the vacant lot where only Bang Eunji and I were left behind, Bang Eunji asked,
“Is that lady Han Ji-soo’s mom?”
“Yeah. She’s really scary… and dotes on her daughter.”
“Seems like it.”
“Huh?”
“She sent her own daughter straight to the hospital from the school gates saying she must be in shock, but told someone else’s daughter like you to come all the way here. Even though you weren’t even needed.”
“Well, yeah.”
In Ji-soo’s mother’s eyes, I was probably just Ji-soo’s Sidekick #1.
Besides, I came because I was worried about Ji-soo, not for her mother.
“What do you want to do? Want to see more of Song Yeo-reum? Head to the police station?”
Just as I was checking my phone while asking Bang Eunji—
“You fucking bitch!”
A man rushing from behind struck Bang Eunji over the head with a liquor bottle.