The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 5
“What on earth did you two do all day?! Every single teacher who had class in our room today came to complain to me! I was so embarrassed I wanted to crawl into a hole and die!”
A rat hole, that is!
Pointing dramatically at the empty floor, our homeroom teacher stomped her foot with a thud.
The teacher was fuming, but I was just dazed.
Seeing her face again for the first time in ten years since graduation, she looked exactly as she had back then.
She was fresh out of college, starting her very first job in society, and had been assigned to our school as a homeroom teacher right off the bat this year.
She wasn't even ten years older than us and was still clumsy and full of mistakes.
Whenever someone asked, ‘Teacher, aren’t you going home?’ her shoulders would slump as she whined, ‘The vice principal told me to finish this before leaving….’ It was a sight we saw more than once or twice.
She knew less about how the school ran than us students who had already spent a year here, so some of the boys even looked down on her openly.
Even so, back then, she had looked like such a proper adult in my eyes.
Looking at her now, though, she was practically a baby. A total baby.
Teacher, do you also go home after work, boil a bowl of Water Spicy Chicken Noodles, and rewatch Yuhan Challenge reruns?
In any case, right now, our homeroom teacher—a thoroughly pissed-off adult woman who was seven years older than my current body—grabbed hold of me and Jung Eun-sung amid the crowd of kids dashing out for lunch.
“Why on earth were you two acting like that today? What, did you coordinate this just to get me in trouble?”
She practically roared.
“The other teachers chewed me out so badly!”
“Teacher, it wasn't like that! Jung Eun-sung was the one who…!”
I really didn't want to do that either!
I'm twenty-nine years old, yet I spent the whole day raising my hand and tattling to the teachers!
In fact, some of the teachers I whined to about scolding Jung Eun-sung were actually younger than my real age.
What a mess!
“Jung Eun-sung picked a fight with me first!”
“No, I didn't. I was merely helping the Music Teacher.”
“Both of you, be quiet! If you pull this one more time, you'll both be staying after school together to clean the classroom as punishment, understood?”
“Oh. Kang Da-hye, I’m so jealous.”
“Teacher, I want to stay behind with Eun-sung too!”
The girl who chimed in with that shout shrank back with a yelp under our homeroom teacher's sharp glare and shut her mouth.
“Please, cut me some slack. We already have so many tardy students in our class that the head of the grade level is keeping a close eye on me. If you keep acting up, I’m really going to get scolded.”
“Yes, ma'am. I’m sorry.”
“I apologize.”
“Fine. Hurry up and go eat lunch. They’re serving spicy stir-fried octopus today.”
Warning us that ‘if you’re late, there won’t be any sauce left to mix with your rice,’ she hurried off first, full of anticipation: ‘I wonder if there’ll be seaweed flakes too?’
…My plan to live as a picture-perfect model student… had fallen apart from day one.
I glared at Jung Eun-sung.
Feeling my gaze, Jung Eun-sung looked down at me.
“What are you looking at?”
“……”
Let’s just ignore him.
I should just go eat lunch. She said if we’re late, there won’t be any octopus sauce left.
I swung open the classroom door, the room having emptied out before I knew it.
The friend I used to eat lunch with around this time was…….
“Da-hye!”
Prevented from entering by the <Students from other classes strictly prohibited!!!!> sign, my friend, who had been waiting outside, beamed brightly and reached out to me.
“Han Ji-soo!”
I ran over and wrapped her in a tight hug.
“Ji-soo! Waaah!”
“Uh…? What’s wrong……?”
“Uuuugh…… It’s really you, Ji-soo…….”
It really was Ji-soo. My friend, Han Ji-soo.
The same tears that had welled up when I saw my younger mom this morning rushed to my eyes in an instant.
“*Sniff, sob*…….”
Sniffling back my runny nose, I tightened my arms around her.
Han Ji-soo.
My friend whom I was seeing again for the first time in ten years.
The closest friend I had ever had in my twenty-nine years of life.
We were in the same class all three years of middle school, and even after entering high school, we were in the same class in our first year.
We had been so close for six straight years, but after I messed up the CSAT, we lost touch.
To be exact, I was the one who unilaterally cut off contact.
Out of an inferiority complex.
While I had ruined my CSAT, Ji-soo performed just as well as usual and got into Hankuk University. And in the very department I had applied to, no less.
Even after that happened, Ji-soo didn't forget me and reached out consistently, but when I kept ignoring her, we drifted apart completely after about a year.
Whenever life got tough, I thought of Ji-soo, but I couldn't bring myself to reach out again.
Because I had no shame.
And because my life wasn't going well enough for me to feel confident reaching out.
I regretted cutting off contact in the first place so many times.
So how could I not be thrilled?
Seeing my friend's face once again.
“Hng….”
“What’s with you? Did the homeroom teacher scold you?”
“Han Ji-soo. I’m heading down first.”
Seo Jae-gyeom, who had been standing with Ji-soo until I came out, glanced back and forth between me and Jung Eun-sung as we stepped into the hallway, then waved to Ji-soo.
“Enjoy your lunch.”
“You too, Seo Jae-gyeom.”
Before turning away, Seo Jae-gyeom’s gaze briefly brushed past me, but I had eyes only for Ji-soo.
Who cared about Seo Jae-gyeom? Han Ji-soo was standing right in front of me.
“Kang Da, are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
“Yeah. I’m just hungry, that’s all.”
“What the heck? Let’s head down too.”
“Yeah.”
“Wipe your nose before we go.”
“Do I look hideous?”
“Yeah. Totally.”
“Hmph.”
Leaving a giggling Ji-soo behind for a second, I roughly grabbed some tissue from the restroom and wiped my face.
I linked arms with Ji-soo, who hadn't uttered a single complaint despite me wasting her precious lunch break.
My friend.
“I went to your classroom earlier this morning, you know.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But you weren't there.”
“Ah, you must have dropped by when I went to the snack bar.”
“Must have been.”
“Why? Did you have something to tell me?”
“Nothing in particular. I just wanted to see you.”
“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden? You’re creeping me out…….”
“Hehe. I’m going to be so good to you from now on, okay?”
Regression was truly a wonderful thing.
I got to meet my friend again like this.
This time, I would never cut off contact; I’d stay close friends with her for the rest of my life.
God, Buddha, ancestors.
I don't know who did this, but thank you for sending me back in time. I'll live a good life from now on.
As I playfully shoved the tissue I’d wiped my face with into Ji-soo’s uniform pocket, Jung Eun-sung suddenly appeared from behind and overtook us.
Watching Jung Eun-sung’s back—handsome enough to tell just from the back of his head—Ji-soo whispered,
“Is that Jung Eun-sung?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you two close?”
“No?!”
What a rude thing to say!
“He’s a complete weirdo!”
“Really? When I saw you two from outside earlier, it looked like you were chatting pretty intimately.”
“We were telling each other to screw off.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. He and I aren't on terms to be having a conversation. Because he’s totally obnoxious.”
“How can someone who looks like that be obnoxious?”
“Right? But Jung Eun-sung somehow manages that impossible feat.”
“Why, why? What is he like?”
“I’ll tell you all the details while we eat.”
Because I was starving.
Thanks to being late after getting scolded by our homeroom teacher, there was no need to wait in line at the cafeteria.
Scanning my student ID at the entrance, I read today’s menu written on the notice board.
- Brown Rice
- Beef and Radish Soup
- Spicy Stir-fried Octopus * Pickled Radish Wraps
- Seasoned Mung Bean Jelly with Seaweed
- Whole Cabbage Kimchi
- Red Bean Butter Walnut Pastry
“Red Bean Butter Walnut Pastry?!”
Are they insane?!
“That looks insanely good.”
Was it really okay for life to be this satisfying?
Humming a cheerful tune, I excitedly got my food.
Instead of seaweed flakes, chives were provided as a garnish for the stir-fried octopus, and since the other kids didn't take any, there were plenty left over, so I took them all.
“Kang Da, did you always like chives?”
“I don't think I liked them in the past…… but I like them now. They’re good for liver health.”
“Liver health…?”
“Yeah. Let’s take a lap around the schoolyard after eating. Managing post-meal blood sugar is important.”
“Uh-huh…?”
“It doesn't really hit home when you’re a teenager. But you have to take care of your health while you still have it.”
Telling Ji-soo that she should take some chives too, I piled a mountain of chives onto her tray as well before turning around.
Wandering around to look for a seat in the cafeteria already packed with students…….
“…Why is the atmosphere like this?”
With this many people around, it was bizarrely quiet.
An atmosphere thick with secretive giggles, or perhaps people watching with bated breath.
Looking around in confusion, my eyes soon found the epicenter.
Sitting alone at an eight-person table placed right in the center, a short-haired girl was eating her meal.
Everywhere else was bustling, yet that single table was completely empty as if by design.
Everyone acted as though the girl were invisible, treating her like a ghost, yet I could also feel all their attention sharply focused on her.
A group sitting at the table right next to the girl snickered.
A voice raised deliberately for everyone to hear pierced my ears.
“Wow. How can someone eat lunch alone?”
“If it were me, I wouldn't eat. I’d just starve.”
“If it were me, I’d just drop out.”
“Well, you’ve got to have skin that thick to sleep with the Geography teacher, right?”
“Hey, I told you it wasn't just Geography! She slept with the Korean History teacher too. If you only bring up Geography, our Doyeon will feel wronged.”
A girl sitting steadfastly on her own, continuing to eat her food even as cheap, trashy conversation was targeted directly at her.
Ah….
How could I have forgotten about this?
