Chapter 5: Street Casting (1)

A day after Kang Ra-Eun had beaten the crap out of Choi Hwang-Cheol and his friends as much as she wanted, she put on the school slippers that she roughly dropped on the floor and headed to class with her backpack. While she was climbing up the stairs...

“You brats, you got into another fight, didn’t you? For God’s sake!”

A math teacher in his fifties grabbed two boys and started lecturing them.

“When will you learn, dammit?! Come on!”

“It’s not that...” The two boys were Hwang-Cheol and the blonde delinquent who was knocked out by Ra-Eun’s leg chop. They were bruised all over, being hesitant while brooding over the wrongful accusation. At that moment...

“Hey, Hwang-Cheol...” The blonde delinquent nudged Hwang-Cheol and pointed at something. Ra-Eun, the culprit who made them that way, was standing there.

“Y-You...!” Hwang-Cheol tried to approach Ra-Eun, but...

“Where do you think you’re going when a teacher is talking to you?! I’m not done yet!”

“Ouch! T-Teacher, you’re ripping out my sideburns!” Hwang-Cheol exclaimed.

“You shouldn’t have gotten into another fight then!”

“We told you, we didn’t get into a fight!”

“Then what?! Did you just let someone beat the crap out of you?”

The two boys momentarily looked toward Ra-Eun, but all she did was giggle and went about her way as if it had nothing to do with her.

Hwang-Cheol was about to go insane. Who’d possibly believe him if he said four guys were beaten one-sidedly by a feeble high school girl? Even if anyone believed him, his pride would be shattered. He was still a school bully. Even if his sideburns were to be ripped off by this math teacher, he did not want to shoulder the disgrace of letting it be known that his ass was beaten by a high school girl.

Ra-Eun looked over at Hwang-Cheol’s group before entering the classroom.

‘I know people like you very well.’

The kind of people who live only for their pride. However...

‘A day will come when you realize that pride will hinder you.’

***

Her Plan B, Operation Secure Funds through stock trading, was going swimmingly thanks to Kang Ra-Hyuk. It was now time for her to execute Plan A.

The final exams of the first semester were held right before summer break. The first subject to be tested was Korean language. The Korean language teacher, acting as the supervisor, scanned the students.

“Let me reiterate, you will get a zero the moment you are caught cheating. Understood?”

“Yes!”

High school academic records were directly related to one’s entrance to university, hence the exams were much stricter compared to the ones in middle school. There were even two supervisors instead of one. The language teacher was at the front, and a male trainee teacher in his twenties was at the back.

“Min-Cheol, please confiscate the exam sheet and answer sheet of anyone who cheats,” the teacher said to the trainee.

“Yes, sir.”

The two supervisors at the front and back pressured the students not to cheat.

“Now... Begin!”

The students picked up their pens as soon as the language teacher gave the starting signal. They mostly had the same reactions to the exam questions.

“Gasp, what the hell is this...?!”

They were stuck right from the first question. The questions were of the highest difficulty. The language teacher explained why the exam difficulty was so high.

“I was fooled by your fussing and made the questions too easy last time. Lo and behold, there were ten or eleven people who got a perfect score on that test. That’s why I made this one extra hard, just to let you know.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“What are you doing? Hurry up and start.”

There wasn’t much time. The students had no choice but to focus on the questions, but they couldn’t fill the answer sheet because the questions were too difficult. However, Ra-Eun alone was breezing through the questions.

The language teacher fixed his gaze on Ra-Eun.

‘She’s probably guessing them to go to sleep.”

She did the same thing during the midterms. Nothing had changed from last time. Ra-Eun put down her pen, folded the exam paper in half and laid down on the desk to sleep.

The language teacher clicked his tongue at her. However, not even he realized that Ra-Eun would be the only student in the classroom who’d get a perfect score.

***

One week passed after the final exams. The day that the test results would be announced had arrived. However, before that...

“Kang Ra-Eun!” The homeroom teacher rushed to the classroom, looking for her.

“Yes?” Ra-Eun answered apathetically.

“Follow me to the staff room. Right now!”

“Understood.”

Her classmates glanced at her, wondering what she had done this time. Ra-Eun headed toward the staff room with her hands in her jacket pockets.

The homeroom teacher pointed at the seat next to him, saying, “Come take a seat.”

“...”

The teachers of other subjects were also staring at Ra-Eun. From their response, she could immediately tell why she was summoned to the staff room.

“Is this because of the final exam results?” she asked.

“That’s right.”

She didn’t know why, but the homeroom teacher was very angry.

“Be honest with me. You cheated, didn’t you?”

“I did not,” Ra-Eun declared.

“Don’t lie. How could you possibly get a perfect score on every subject? Huh? You were at the bottom of the class in the midterms!”

Ra-Eun held in her sigh.

‘You should’ve studied a little, Kang Ra-Eun.’

Of course, this was directed toward the original owner of the body, not herself. Her current self was being suspected of cheating because of her past self. However, her answer did not change.

“I did not cheat. We were being watched from the front and back, so how could I possibly have cheated? Plus, you checked our desks and belongings before the exam started.”

“Th-That’s true, but...”

There had been no leeway to cheat. Even if there was, a perfect score on all subjects was a difficult feat. She either used all the luck in her lifetime to guess all the answers, or she was just that smart. The teachers were at a loss of what to do, seeing a result that couldn’t have come to be if it wasn’t because of one or the other possibility.

Ra-Eun sighed and struck first.

“If you think I cheated, then just give me a zero on all of them. I’ll prove in the next semester that this wasn’t a coincidence.”

“...”

“I’ll go prepare for my next class, then. It’s P.E., so I have to change my clothes. Excuse me.”

The homeroom teacher couldn’t keep Ra-Eun from leaving. He checked her exam papers again. She didn’t just check the number boxes corresponding to the answer, but also showed her work. The homeroom teacher wondered if this result had bloomed from her hard work through her desire to change. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

***

The final exam results were announced. The grade standings of Year 2 Class 5 changed significantly.

[1st. Kang Ra-Eun]

The students checked the score sheet, unable to believe what they were seeing.

A perfect score.

“Impossible.”

“No way, did she cheat?”

“The trainee teacher was observing us from the back, so was cheating even possible?”

“But... It doesn’t make any sense otherwise.”

There was no way that the students wouldn’t find it suspicious even when the teachers did.

‘Staying here is just a waste of time.’

Ra-Eun quickly packed up her belongings. The moment she was about to leave the classroom with her backpack slung on her left shoulder...

“Ah...!”

She unexpectedly bumped into a girl with bobbed hair who was about to enter the classroom. Ra-Eun quickly stretched her arm out and wrapped it around the girl’s waist. She helped the girl stand upright and spoke calmly, “Be careful. Try not to bump into others again.”

“O-Okay. Thanks.”

Ra-Eun walked toward the hallway. The bobbed-haired girl stared at Ra-Eun as she headed home while stroking her long hair down with one hand.

***

Ra-Eun sighed deeply as she looked at her clothes while she was in a cafe near her home with Ra-Hyuk. She was wearing pink skinny jeans and a tight long-sleeved shirt.

‘Does this girl die if she doesn’t show off her body or something?’

95% of her clothes consisted of those with high exposure or those that revealed her figure. Her confidence was not unfounded, since her figure really was that good.

‘But at least she has pants.’

It was comfortable wearing skinny jeans after wearing that short uniform skirt every single day in school. Ra-Eun took off her slippers and sat cross-legged after a long time. Her brother, bringing the coffee beverages that they ordered, said with a flabbergasted face, “We’re not at home. Can’t you sit more well-mannered?”

“Who cares? We’re the only customers here.”

Ra-Hyuk sighed deeply while looking at her little sister sipping her drink with a straw.

The siblings came to a cafe to come up with a stock trading plan. They could usually do it at home, but they had no choice but to come to a cafe because their father was home. They could not afford to have the fact that they were trading stocks exposed.

“So, have you figured out what to do next?” Ra-Hyuk asked. He was highly motivated compared to before, since he had managed to earn so much. Ra-Eun handed him a notebook.

Ra-Hyuk asked, “What’s this?”

“This month’s stock trading plan. I wrote hourly details, so just do as it says.”

“Okay, I got it!”

“And...” Ra-Eun said as she rubbed the ends of her middle finger and thumb together. “Give me my share.”

“How much?” Ra-Hyuk asked.

“5 mil.”

“What? No way! What’s a brat like you gonna do with five million won?!”

“You have almost ten times the seed money you had thanks to me.”

“What do you need the five million for?”

Ra-Eun pointed at her chest... No, her tight top.

“For buying clothes.”

She was planning on buying some comfortable clothes to wear around. It was for clothes, so Ra-Hyuk had no choice but to agree.

“Okay, okay. But don’t use it on anything weird, okay?”

“I know.”

As the conversation was about to end, someone started up a conversation with Ra-Eun.

“Could you be... Ra-Eun?”

Ra-Eun turned her head, and was greeted by a familiar face. The bobbed-haired girl who she had bumped into earlier was staring at Ra-Eun with astonished eyes.