Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: The Top Student Hides Her Regression
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A low, subdued voice read the words on the screen.
"I want you. Jae."
I slowly raised my gaze, following the large hand gripping my phone.
Slightly tanned skin. A neat school uniform that didn't match his thuggish features. Clear, piercing eyes that would drive the senior girls wild, paired with pretty lips.
"...Jeong Eun-seong?"
It was Jeong Eun-seong.
The last person I'd seen before falling from the rooftop in my previous life.
The guy who, after all the members left the group amid scandals and controversies, became Korea's representative actor eleven years later.
But right now...
He was an 18-year-old trainee from a major agency.
The hot new transfer student who joined our class at the start of the semester. The center of attention.
Along with Seo Jae-kyeom, he was the reason girls from other classes kept making excuses like "Can I borrow your gym clothes?" or "Can I borrow your textbook?" to barge into our room.
Ultimately, the main culprit who made our homeroom teacher so fed up after just two days that she plastered a huge "NO ENTRY FOR OTHER CLASSES!!!!" sign on the classroom door.
The only classmate whose future self I knew.
"Hey, it's Jeong Eun-seong."
"Eun-seong! Hi!"
"Eun-seong, remember me?"
Even as Jeong Eun-seong and I stood facing off in the hallway, girls squealed and waved at him as they passed by.
"Jeong Eun-seong..."
I gazed at him—eleven years compressed into an instant—with a touch of awe.
His eyes met mine, still glistening with unshed tears, and he looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Jeong Eun-seong, you..."
"Kang Da-hye, you..."
"You were short in high school?"
"Why are you crying?"
"......"
"......"
Gasp.
That was something I should have only thought to myself.
Jeong Eun-seong scowled.
"I'm short?"
He let out a disbelieving ha, ha while staring at the ceiling, then straightened his back. But that didn't make him any taller.
I trailed off as I stared at his Adam's apple right in front of my nose.
"No, but seriously, you're really short..."
Objectively, he might not be that short, but if someone who'd required me to crane my neck just hours ago suddenly shrank by about ten centimeters, anyone would feel the same way.
For the record, late-20s Jeong Eun-seong was 187 cm tall. Officially 187, though rumors said he was even taller.
Right now?
Around 179, maybe.
He was already over 180 when he debuted, so did he shoot up in the next year?
Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered seeing him in his senior year, grumbling about needing a new uniform after growing so fast in one year, striding in with long legs.
"It's fine. You'll grow soon."
I tried to comfort him, but he ignored me completely.
Dismissing my words, Jeong Eun-seong glanced down at my phone in his hand.
His thumb casually swiped the screen, scrolling down.
Anyone would think it was his phone.
Even for close friends, flipping through their phone like that is rude...
"Huh?"
Come to think of it...
At this point, he'd only transferred a week ago, so we should still be awkward with each other.
Yet here he was, chatting so casually.
Why was he so at ease?
...No way?
"Jeong Eun-seong, do you by any chance remember..."
"A love that's only one-sided. It might get boring. Even trying to find only your ugly habits."
"...Huh?"
He cut off my attempt to ask, 'Did you regress too?'
Gazing imperiously at my phone, Jeong Eun-seong started reciting the highlighted lyrics from my playlist.
In a voice that sounded utterly bored.
"Just. For one day. The girl by your side. I pray it's me before I know it."
"......"
"To a changed love. Anytime. I hope you'll come. So you can fall asleep. In my arms forever~ Wooooah~"
"Stop! Stop it!"
You maniac!
"Give it back!"
I snatched the phone away.
Unlike how tightly he'd been holding it as if he wouldn't let go, he handed it over easily.
Staring straight at my flushed face, he smirked crookedly.
"Endless bookmarked lyrics, huh."
"None of your business..."
"Looks like you're having quite the epic one-sided crush?"
"......"
"Who's Jae?"
"Shut up!"
That Jae is in our class! I scolded him, clamping my hand over his mouth.
He glanced down at my hand pressing on his lips, then simply turned his head to shake it off, unfazed.
"Why'd you read that!"
"Can't I read it?"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"It's my privacy!"
"That song is your privacy? A hit from decades ago?"
"It's not decades ago! And classics transcend time!"
"True. Classics do transcend time. They're famous, so obviously not your privacy."
"Not the song—the phone! My phone is my privacy!"
"Oh, Kang Da-hye's one-sided love playlist? Yeah, that could be private..."
"Hey!"
"Your face is red."
"......"
It's embarrassing. That's why.
Why was I so overflowing with sentimentality back then...
Watching me huff, Jeong Eun-seong tilted his head slightly toward his shoulder.
"What, embarrassed about your love for Jae? Collecting... 98 songs."
When he said "98 songs," he craned his neck and peered at my phone again.
"Can you stop snooping?"
I grumbled curtly, snatching it back and tapping the screen furiously.
Delete this stupid playlist! Delete!
"Why delete it? It's a classics party."
"Party's over."
"Why? Did the battery die?"
"......"
This guy has no memory of it. One hundred percent.
If he did, he couldn't say stuff like that.
I clamped my mouth shut and glared at him.
His still-boyish face stared right back.
The scar on his cheek that his fans would later lament over wasn't there yet—his skin was pristine.
If eleven years later he had a perfectly sculpted face, right now in his boyhood it gave off promising potential.
Lost in admiring his face amid all this, I was a beat late responding to his call.
"Kang Da-hye."
"...Yeah?"
"If you scream your lungs out from behind and they pretend not to notice, it's already a lost cause."
"......"
"Give up and find another guy."
"......"
"Oh, and don't forget to share the playlist before you delete it."
"You little..."
"Heh heh heh..."
"Hey, what are you doing in the hallway!"
The vice homeroom teacher from the next class over broke us up, striding toward us while smacking the wall with her pointer from afar.
"Get back inside!"
Just you wait.
I shot Jeong Eun-seong a death glare.
He chuckled softly under my stare and headed into the classroom first.
I followed, but...
Slam.
The door shut right in front of my nose.
"......"
Through the closed classroom door, Jeong Eun-seong grinned with his eyes.
This jerk?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Was Jeong Eun-seong always like that?
[What I Know About Jeong Eun-seong] - He'd already appeared in several commercials and music videos by the time he transferred to our school. - Searching his name on a portal site brings up photos, age, and his high school (ours). - In my previous life, fans occasionally showed up at school for him. - So, was he always like that? No idea! I don't remember! "Da-hye, you okay?"
"Huh?"
"You were crying earlier."
"Oh. Yeah, I'm fine now. Nothing bothers me anymore."
I whispered back softly to my friend beside me (the one who'd pointed out my seat earlier).
We were seated in rows snaking through the music room by roll number, starting from the front. In the back, Seo Jae-kyeom wasn't even paying attention to me as he playfully responded to the teacher's joke.
Jeong Eun-seong's side was quiet.
Jeong Eun-seong's personality... No clue. What was he like?
We only started talking later when we joined the same club, but at the beginning of the semester, we barely exchanged words.
We were just aware of each other's existence in the same class—nothing more, nothing less.
His sudden behavior post-regression had me pretty surprised too.
"Anyway, kids. You know you have a singing performance assessment, right?"
The music teacher sitting at the piano snapped me out of my thoughts.
"You guys never study hard for music anyway. Say it's useless for college. So starting this year, I'm upping the performance assessment weight. First semester singing, second semester composition exam."
"Composition?!"
"Plagiarism?"
"Quiet down. I'll let you pick your singing test song. What do you want to sing?"
"National anthem?"
"Can you memorize all four verses?"
"No."
"Rejected."
"......"
"No opinions?"
"......"
"No opinions? Then we do the school song."
No way the school song.
Ours has rap in it.
Someone suggest something.
With that in mind, I glanced back and locked eyes with Jeong Eun-seong, who was resting his chin on his hand, staring ahead.
He blinked slowly at me, so
I flashed a smile: "^_^ middle finger"
Suddenly, Jeong Eun-seong shot his hand up.
"Teacher."
"Yeah? Eun-seong has an idea?"
"Kang Da-hye knows a lot of classic songs."
"......"
...This motherfucker????????????