IRLPLBIO Chapter 21 Part 1

Chapter 21 #5. I’m Not a Runaway Kid (1)

Jae-gu covered his burning mouth and raised his head. He wondered why the teacher was taking so long to speak.

The teacher, who had been setting a very serious mood, struggled to choose his words.

“Well, Jae-gu. Listen closely. You shouldn’t expect to be full from the first spoon, should you?”

“…Yes, that’s right. It seems like a correct statement… but why are you saying it so seriously…?”

“Hey now. See? You’re asking so hastily. You shouldn’t do that.”

“…Teacher.”

The teacher, who was holding back, flinched. While Jae-gu wasn’t enough of a delinquent to completely disrespect the teacher, he had built up an aura from his reign as the local boss. As he flinched, the paper he touched with his fingertips crumpled.

“Ahem,” the teacher cleared his throat and picked up a paper cup, trying not to show his embarrassment. His face turned bright red as he drank the steaming green tea, but he didn’t make a fuss.

Seeing the teacher struggling to speak first, Jae-gu preempted him.

“I didn’t cheat.”

“Cough!”

The green tea that had gone halfway down his throat was spectacularly spat out.

Jae-gu, pulling his head back slightly to avoid the splattering drops, watched as green tea droplets dotted the glass-topped desk. The flustered teacher quickly pulled out tissues and began wiping his mouth and the desk alternately.

“You, you…! Where did you hear such a strange thing and come here…!”

“This is the result of my hard work. I didn’t do anything shameful. Look at this.”

Jae-gu held out his notebook. Instead of taking and opening the notebook, the teacher gently put it down and placed a hand on Jae-gu’s shoulder.

“…Hey, Jae-gu.”

The sigh that was about to escape was swallowed back. Hesitating whether to comfort Jae-gu or blurt out the truth, he finally spoke after soothing Jae-gu for a while to prevent him from being surprised.

“The results might not show immediately… but you’ll keep studying, right?”

“Huh? Yes.”

It wasn’t particularly moving, but his nose stung. The teacher, holding the bridge of his nose and making a sniffing sound, placed a piece of paper in Jae-gu’s hand.

On the paper, Jae-gu’s grades were printed. He nervously watched Jae-gu’s eyes slowly move, reading the numbers.

A moment later, when Jae-gu had finished looking at the listed numbers, the teacher urgently asked. He was so anxious that he even clutched Jae-gu’s hands tightly with both of his own.

“You haven’t changed your mind, have you? You’re still going to keep studying, right? That’s right, see, you went up a bit compared to last time.”

“That’s… true.”

His calm reply made it hard to read what Jae-gu was thinking. The teacher’s words sped up a little.

“It’s definitely harder than first grade. All the other kids’ averages dropped too. When the overall average comes out later, just you wait, I’ll be exactly right. But you’re the one who went up like this when others went down. This is how you slowly, little by little, improve. Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t dramatically jump up right away. Yang Jae-gu, like a man! Huh!”

As his speech grew longer, his movements became more agitated, and finally, the teacher was vigorously shaking Jae-gu’s hands up and down. His feet, clad in slippers, were nervously tapping the ground.

Jae-gu stared blankly at his score, then asked the teacher.

“Can I also know Joo Hae-jun’s score?”

“Huh? Why Joo Hae-jun?”

“We made a bet about our grades. If his is better, I’d feel unfairly treated.”

“…Then, are you disappointed…?”

“No. I’m going to live properly from now on.”

Only then did the teacher’s expression brighten considerably. He ruffled Jae-gu’s hair and grinned.

“It’s difficult for me to tell you Joo Hae-jun’s grades, so when the report card comes out later, you two can exchange them.”

“Report card?”

“That thin paper with all the grades written on it, don’t you know it?”

“…Ah.”

Until now, he hadn’t even known the name of that paper. It would just casually roll around in his bag until it disappeared, or got torn to shreds.

But now, that ‘report card’ had become important.

Perhaps finding Jae-gu’s docile nod admirable, the teacher filled Jae-gu’s hands with snacks. There were plenty of colorful monaka and glutinous rice crackers.

“You’ve really become a proper person, Yang Jae-gu!”

The teacher, who patted his backside, seemed to have expected Jae-gu to be disappointed and upset, but Jae-gu was quite satisfied. After all, the average score he had just seen was nearly double what it had been last time.

“Just you wait, Joo Hae-jun.”

Jae-gu muttered triumphantly.

The unawakened Joo Hae-jun was an idiot on par with himself. In a confrontation between idiots, he was sure to win, having doubled his score in a short period.

…And so, the result of waiting until the report card came out.

“Kya-hak! Kyahahahaha-hak…! Cough, gasp, kuku-kuku…”

Upon checking Jae-gu’s grades, Hae-jun burst into uncontrollable laughter. The bizarre laughter, which one might believe he’d practiced, stuck to Jae-gu’s ears. He even choked midway but continued to laugh heartily without caring.

“Ugh, hey… Wow, seriously, sniffle, my stomach… my stomach hurts so much… gasp…”

“Stop laughing.”

“Oh, okay… but you, pfft, boasted you’d raise your grades…! You bragged, didn’t you… kukukukuk…”

No matter how much he covered his mouth, the maniacal laughter kept escaping. In the end, Hae-jun laughed his fill like someone who had lost their mind.

“This is what went up… sniffle, I’m laughing so much, I can’t… I can’t breathe properly… Yang Jae-gu, you idiot bastard… gasp…”

Even while panting, Hae-jun said everything he wanted to say. That made him even more exasperating.

Unable to bear it any longer, Jae-gu kicked Hae-jun. The dust from the sole of his slipper transferred entirely onto Hae-jun’s backside.

Hae-jun flopped over like an inflatable air dancer at a gas station, and even while lying face down, he didn’t stop chuckling.

“Idiot Yang Jae-gu. Your first digit is 5, mine is 7!”

“…Shit.”

Jae-gu covered his face.

Yang Jae-gu’s coolness was completely dead.

It was incredibly embarrassing.

Unlike Jae-gu’s school life, which had changed dramatically, Kwang-cheol’s school life had not changed much.