Chapter 133
Chapter 133
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: The Short Skirt Fiasco
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Kang Da-hye!"
Morning on the way to school. Yoon Sang-heon, who was standing at the school gate, called out to me.
"You, get over here!"
"...Me?"
Puppy?
I'd never heard that one before in my life, so I headed over to him in a daze. It was so ridiculous I wasn't even mad. Puppy? Was that short for some chirping bird?
But what he said next was even more absurd.
"Why is your skirt so damn short!"
"Huh?"
My skirt? I startled and looked down at my knees.
The signature pink uniform skirt of High High High School ended neatly just below my knees. A skirt length that put my 29-year-old soul at ease.
Not short at all?
Girls wearing skirts way shorter than mine giggled excitedly as they passed through the gate behind me, blinking innocently.
Had I misheard? I checked again.
"You saying my skirt is short?"
"Yeah!"
"My skirt?"
The one I was wearing right now? Meaning, me? Yoon Sang-heon's face twisted at my repeated confirmations.
"You little... "
No, it was just that absurd. I'd never heard anyone call my skirt short since the day I was born.
"Does the teacher maybe follow a Confucian worldview...?"
Had he decided to live by the principle of separating boys and girls at age seven, like the student teacher?
It wasn't defiance—just genuine curiosity—but he must have taken it as backtalk.
"Who do you think you're...!"
The moment he raised his fist like he was about to flick my forehead—
"Oh! Mr. Yoon Sang-heon! You're not seriously about to raise a hand to a student, are you?!"
If Kang Da-hye's head got hit and her brain cells got wrecked, who'd go to Korea University!
"No corporal punishment! No corporal punishment!"
Someone barged in from behind, cawing like a crow.
It was hard to believe that deep voice could sound so bubbly.
It was Jeong Na-jun from our class.
The king of cringe.
Don't know who that is?
'So beau-ti-ful, loooovely!!!!!!!!!!!'
The guy from first semester who did the horse dance in the classroom.
'This mess all because of an application? You lent me a pen right away and told me to fill it out... Hey, Da-hye. Was that your proposal back then and I just didn't get it?'
The kid who sighed dramatically during Do Ha-jun's public confession (aaah).
'Hey, you guys talking about Da-hye?'
The one who overheard Do Ha-jun trash-talking me at the PC bang and told me about it.
"No way! It can't be! I believe you, teacher!"
Yoon Sang-heon flinched and twisted around ungracefully at the sudden loud voice and hulking frame.
"Da-hye, what's going on?"
Jeong Na-jun's voice was so booming it pulled in every bit of aggro from the neighborhood. Even the passing Na Mun-gwa teacher poked her head in.
"What? Your skirt? What nonsense... It's so neat it'd look good in a catalog!"
The geography teacher must've been tired today. He shot me a side-eye and let me go.
"I believe~ Love at first sight, I believe~♪"
"Cut it out and come here."
I dragged Jeong Na-jun, who was now belting out some elementary school song at the top of his lungs, into the entrance.
"Do you know how much I don't wanna get caught too easilyyy?!"
"Ugh, what's up with Jeong Na-jun today."
"Heh."
He blew individual kisses to all the girls recoiling in disgust, then turned to me with sparkling eyes. It was written all over his face: Thank me, right? Say thanks.
Of course I was super grateful, but seeing him poised there like he was waiting for me to bow made me not want to say it...
"Thangs, Na-jun."
"Heh heh."
Jeong Na-jun proudly lifted his head and ran a hand through his short hair.
"I saw you on the bus earlier."
"On the bus?"
"Yeah. You were memorizing vocab and didn't even notice me there?"
I hadn't a clue.
"A bus packed with uniformed students, sunlight pouring in through the window, the top student studying away! And the handsome guy sitting right behind her~ Now that's a youth romance flick?"
"......"
I climbed the stairs as far away as possible from Jeong Na-jun, who was now dancing in circles with his own soundtrack blaring: ta-ra-ra-raaa~
"Everyone!"
☆I don't know this guy at all☆
"Everyone! Blow away that embarrassment!"
"Geology god."
I smacked away his hand as he tried to drag me into a spin, and that's when I bumped right into Ji-su coming out of Class 1.
"......"
"......"
Ji-su naturally looked away from me and walked off in the opposite direction.
A signature lovely smile playing on her lips.
As if I were the only one who'd spent all night agonizing: Why couldn't I have been firmer with her? Was I too soft because I was scared of fighting? Why am I such a coward?
"......"
"Kang Da-hye, you can't dodge our dance battle just by spacing out there! Hurry up and come on."
"Argh."
Fine, going.
"Kang Da-hye."
"Seo Jae-kyeom."
"You get home okay yesterday?"
"You walked me back."
"Not all the way to your door."
"True, but."
Here I was, safe and sound at school, so wasn't that fine? I chuckled, and Seo Jae-kyeom's face turned red. He fidgeted with his hands in a way that was unlike him, then spoke up.
"If you wanna see that cat again sometime..."
"Volunteers for the math trip talent show!"
His words—ones I could've sworn came from Lee Seo-jun based on tone alone—were cut off as Ye-su-a burst through the front door clutching the attendance roster.
Our new class president Ye-su-a swung the roster around like a sword as she rattled off announcements.
"Pick your math trip roommates by Friday! Rooms fit about eight each! If we overflow, I'll split you up however! No sign-up means rooming with me! Hate it? Be class president yourself!"
Jeong Eun-seong, who came in right after, marched up to Seo Jae-kyeom standing beside me and jabbed a finger at him.
"You!"
"What?"
"You! You! You!"
"Uh...?"
Eun-seong, who couldn't get the words out and just kept pointing, versus Seo Jae-kyeom, who looked utterly relaxed.
"You why! You! Yesterday!"
"What about it?"
"Are they fighting?"
I shook my head at the curious classmates.
"Nah. They're friends."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Still kinda curious, though.
Wasn't it usually Eun-seong doing the teasing and Jae-kyeom on the receiving end?
How'd it flip?
"Why didn't you pick up?!"
"Guess the transfer student got real salty since I didn't."
Heart Jae'd? Seo Jae-kyeom smirked.
He sneered away without even knowing where "Jae" came from.
"See? They're tight. They even talk on the phone."
"For real."
Another peaceful morning in Class 2-2.
"Cute."
Ye-su-a said it while grabbing Lee Seo-jun's cheeks—freshly arrived—and stretching them out.
"Oh, right. Do Ha-jun's mom was downstairs?"
"Huh? Why?"
Do Ha-jun had transferred out. To a boys-only paradise with no mean girls, just true mentors who understood his heart.
"Three days after transferring, he was bawling that he wanted to come back here."
"Gasp, for real?"
"Yup. Said he couldn't handle it, hated going to school. My friend saw him throwing a tantrum, lying in the apartment parking lot crying in the morning. So his mom came by wanting to cancel the transfer."
"Transfer isn't like a return policy. Flip-flopping like that."
Transfer in, out, in, out, in, out, hey.
Yeon-hee, next to my dumbfounded self, asked:
"So what happened?"
"Overheard the vice principal saying absolutely not."
"Yeah, figures."
Even if I were vice principal, I wouldn't take a kid like Do Ha-jun.
"That school's rules are super strict, so they buzzed his head half-off, but stress caused a bald spot. His mom was raging that it was our school's fault he transferred in the first place, so we have to take responsibility..."
"Kang Da-hye! Who is she!"
"Eek."
Ye-su-a startled and whipped around.
The one who'd stormed into the classroom yelling wasn't anyone else but...
Do Ha-jun's mom.
"Kang Da-hye, who humiliated my son! Who is Kang Da-hye!"
That was when it happened.
"That's me."
A low voice cut in casually.
As if he'd just been huffing and puffing with arms flailing moments ago, Jeong Eun-seong strode forward and stared down at Do Ha-jun's mom with half-lidded eyes.
"Me. Kang Da-hye."
"......"
"Go ahead. You were looking for me."
You... Kang Da-hye?