The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 49
The Number One Student Hides Her Regression
“Why are you here?”
I eyed Seo Jae-gyeom suspiciously as he stood at the library entrance.
Seo Jae-gyeom had been quiet for days, as if in shock ever since I told him, Don’t make me embarrassed for having liked you.
No Kotalk messages, no talking to me. For a while, he had kept such a low profile I wondered if we were even in the same class.
Yet today, there was no way to miss him even if I tried.
‘…Were they short on flowers at the cherry blossom festival?’
Did they draft him to stand in for the blossoms or something?
Seo Jae-gyeom always dressed well, but today he was downright dazzling.
What was going on?
Every boy I’ve run into today is distractingly good-looking. Except Do Hajun.
I looked down at my own shabby appearance, which screamed that I had just come to study, then looked back at Seo Jae-gyeom.
All dressed up like that… at a library?
Meeting my suspicious gaze, Seo Jae-gyeom insisted.
“It’s a coincidence.”
“What is?”
“Running into each other like this. It’s not like I was waiting here for you or anything.”
“…….”
“Be realistic. How could I have waited for you when I didn’t even know if you’d show up, or what time you’d come if you did? It’s a coincidence.”
“I see.”
“I come here often anyway.”
“Right.”
“I listened to you and didn’t message you. But I can’t control running into you by chance, can I? It’s not like you rented out the whole library, Kang Da-hye. You’re not the only citizen in this country! I pay taxes too! Not much right now, but I’ll pay more and more later on!”
“Seo Jae-gyeom.”
“Yeah!”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“…….”
“You came here to study, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“And you come here often?”
“Yeah.”
“Then go issue a reading room seat ticket.”
“Huh?”
“Over there.”
I pointed toward the seat kiosk in the lobby.
Quick note: To use the study rooms in this library, you have to register as a member on the library’s website beforehand.
Only after scanning a membership card can you use the seat kiosk.
Under my steady gaze, Seo Jae-gyeom hesitated before shuffling over to the machine. From behind, I watched his unnecessarily pretty fingers press the seat issuance button.
[Please scan your membership card or enter your ID.]
“…….”
“Heh.”
This wasn’t just praying for a chance encounter… wasn’t this a straight-up stakeout?
‘Usually, people only pull stuff like this when they have an unrequited crush.’
Loitering around someone’s usual spots in hopes of running into them “by chance.”
If this had been me before the regression, I would have gotten my hopes up. Thinking Seo Jae-gyeom liked me.
“No, it’s not like that!”
Turning pale, Seo Jae-gyeom waved his hands frantically.
“I’m really not doing that! I’m not trying to lead you on or string you along! It’s not because I’m hung up on you! Not that the thought of bumping into you didn’t cross my mind on my way over, Kang Da, but it’s really not what you think!”
“All right, calm down.”
Take a breath when you speak.
“I believe you.”
Unless someone was a professional fisherman, who would string someone along with this much effort?
“Happy? Now let’s go our separate ways.”
I nudged Seo Jae-gyeom aside as he blocked the kiosk. I scanned my membership card and began selecting a seat.
[Cancelled.]
“…If we ran into each other by chance!”
Having just cancelled the seat I took the trouble of picking, Seo Jae-gyeom huffed.
“When classmates! Bump into each other while out to study! Can’t we just study together?!”
“…?”
“Are we on such bad terms that you have to study alone even after we bumped into each other?!”
“…….”
Studying is meant to be done alone; do people study in herds?
I wanted to snap back coldly like the narrator in The Camellias, but if I did, Seo Jae-gyeom would probably burst into tears. Seriously, he was acting like a throwing-a-tantrum kindergartener.
Sigh.
“Fine. Let’s study together. …I happened to have some questions I couldn’t solve anyway.”
I was planning to save them up to ask the teacher on Monday, but getting them sorted now wouldn’t hurt.
Seo Jae-gyeom never studies, but he’s smart enough to pull good grades just by skimming through things the night before an exam.
The type who fools around, buckles down during his senior year, and gets into Doksuri University through the regular admission track.
The type where everyone around him laments, ‘If only he’d applied himself earlier, he could’ve gotten into Hankuk University,’ while he couldn’t care less.
The type who breezes through college doing everything half-heartedly yet effortlessly excelling. A truly obnoxious type.
When I gave a half-hearted nod, Seo Jae-gyeom’s face brightened instantly. Quickly regaining his signature laid-back grin, he gestured with his chin.
“There’s a cafe next door. Want to go? I’ll buy you coffee.”
“I already had coffee earlier.”
“With who? A guy?”
“…….”
“Can’t I even ask?!”
“You didn’t know this? You?”
“Shh. Thanks. Now let’s study.”
In the end, we ended up at the cafe.
Waiting for Seo Jae-gyeom to sign up for library membership felt like a waste of time.
We took a table on the second floor of a large franchise cafe tailored for study-cafe patrons, and I unzipped my bag. Seo Jae-gyeom, who had been watching closely to see what I’d pull out, took out the exact same workbook.
It was the workbook our Math Class A had ordered together in bulk.
“You’re doing the practice problems on page 90, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s solve them together. I’ll set a timer.”
“We have to finish all the OMR bubble-filling within the time limit.”
Forty-five minutes later.
“Done!”
“Aaaargh!”
As I went to flip over the OMR sheet on the table, Seo Jae-gyeom snatched my hand. He clasped it so thoroughly his hand covered mine completely, only to flinch and pull away, immediately checking my reaction. Pretending not to notice, I took a red pen from my pencil case.
“Kang Da-hye, I bubbled the last question wrong… Can’t I change just one?”
“No. Once marked, no take-backs.”
“Then what about a confession?”
“Huh?”
“Is rejecting a confession also no take-backs?”
“…….”
The red pen I had just uncapped slipped, leaving a straight red streak across the back of my other hand.
That came out of nowhere.
“What did you say?”
I stared at Seo Jae-gyeom. Hunching his large frame as small as possible, he looked up at me.
Given our height difference, there was no way he could naturally look up at me, yet he pretended to, putting on a pathetic, puppy-dog expression.
“I’m asking if I can take back rejecting you.”
“…….”
“Without the whole thing where you confessed and I rejected you—so that being nice to you doesn’t count as leading you on—can’t we just… just be close friends?”
“…….”
“I want to talk to you and joke around with you, but if you say that’s leading you on and that I shouldn’t… I don’t know what to do.”
“…Why do you even want to do that so badly?”
“I don’t know.”
Seo Jae-gyeom’s expression grew murky.
Looking at the visibly confused Seo Jae-gyeom, I thought to myself.
Could it be that?
‘I just wanted us to be close friends, so why did you have to confess and ruin our friendship!’
I had no idea why Seo Jae-gyeom, who used to barely give me the time of day, suddenly wanted to forge a deep friendship with me now.
‘Still, there’s nothing good about staying on awkward terms with Seo Jae-gyeom.’
After all, we have to be in the same class for the rest of the year.
If he’s willing to undo the rejection, that works out for me.
I recapped the pen in my hand and addressed him.
“Fine.”
“Really?!”
“On one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t try to actively flirt with me.”
“…How am I supposed to tell the difference between just being nice to a friend and flirting?”
“Let your conscience decide.”
“Got it.”
Seo Jae-gyeom nodded.
I briefly watched color return to his face before lowering my gaze back to the OMR sheet.
Before the regression, Seo Jae-gyeom had felt completely out of reach, someone way out of my league. But after regressing…
‘He’s kind of a pushover.’
“Then let’s study now.”
“Yeah!”
Look at him, all thrilled.
“Kang Da-hye. About things you can do just as friends.”
“Yeah.”
“Is talking to you okay?”
“It’s okay.”
“What about looking at you during class?”
“Not okay.”
Why look at me? Look at the front.
“Sending Kotalk messages?”
“Only when you actually have business.”
“Wiping something off your face?”
“Only if it’s a bug.”
“Accidentally brushing hands?”
“Can’t be helped.”
“Wiping the pen mark off your hand with a wet wipe?”
“Hand it over. I’ll wipe it myself.”
Scrub, scrub.
“What about letting you know I don’t keep in touch with Baek Eunju, Yang Dajung, or Kim Haein anymore?”
“(Ignored)”
“Handing you a fork to eat cake?”
“(Ignored)”
“Telling you to try a sip of my drink?”
“(Looked away)”
“Borrowing an eraser?”
“(Closed pencil case)”
“Doodling in your workbook?”
“Ah, cut it out!”
“Isn’t Kang Da going to be number one again this time anyway~?”
“I’ll try my best.”
“You’re the top student, and now you’re popular too. Kang Da is the best.”
“Huh? I’m not popular.”
Though I will take first place.
Is being number one… that hard anyway? If you get every question right, you automatically become number one.
And getting a perfect score isn’t overwhelmingly difficult either, is it? You just have to not get anything wrong.
If you study hard, only problems you know will appear, so you won’t get them wrong.
Putting in the effort to get a hundred in just one subject isn’t that hard, right? If you just do that multiple times, you get straight hundreds.
I’m a little anxious because of math… but either way, becoming the school’s top ranker itself isn’t such a difficult thing.
No need to compare myself with others. I just have to do well.
If I get a perfect score, it’s game over.
Popular, though? Not in the slightest…
Beside me, as my eyes grew unfocused, Jisu chuckled.
“No, you’ve gotten really popular, Kang Da. You’re even class president.”
“That’s just because I actively campaigned for it.”
“I’m telling you, it’s true. Want to see for yourself?”
Flashing a bright smile, Jisu pointed across from us.