Chapter 7….

The Wise School Life of a Scholarship Student (1)

At Cheonghwa High School, students admitted under the special scholarship program were treated as if they belonged to the Sudra, the servant caste.

Officially, the Constitution of South Korea prohibited discrimination based on social status.

That was what the law said.

But inside this school?

The rules didn’t apply.

A caste system existed here in every sense of the word.

The children of chaebol families belonged to the Brahmin class.

The sons and daughters of politicians, generals, and high-ranking government officials made up the Kshatriya class.

The children of CEOs of mid-sized companies, judges, prosecutors, accountants, and doctors were the Vaishya class.

And me?

I was an untouchable.

Someone who could never belong to their world.

“Your soul really was innocent back then. Heh.”

I couldn’t help laughing at my former self.

I had honestly believed that if I studied hard and behaved well, like I had in middle school, I’d naturally make friends.

I thought I could freely mingle with everyone.

Besides, Cheonghwa High School was coeducational and famous for its arts and athletics.

For someone like me—a former all-boys middle school student with excellent grades—it seemed like the perfect place to dream.

Reality?

A complete disaster.

It didn’t take long before I painfully realized that my dream could never become reality.

At first, my height and good looks made me someone people would at least chat with.

But everything changed once word spread that I was a scholarship student.

Classmates I had sincerely believed were my friends suddenly avoided me as if on cue.

The moment the “scholarship student” label stuck to me, I instantly became an outcast.

The teachers weren’t much different.

Aside from a handful of exceptions, they all kept me at arm’s length.

Only my grades kept things from getting even worse.

If I hadn’t consistently ranked near the top of the class, I probably wouldn’t have survived until graduation.

Even knowing how things were, I gathered my courage several times and tried to connect with them.

Every single time…

I was treated like I didn’t exist.

The only reason I endured it was because years of cold treatment from my father’s family had already given me nerves of steel.

Before I regressed, I didn’t have a single friend from high school.

Those three years…

They were nothing but black history and trauma.

“Grandma! This time… I’m going to live differently!”

Back then, school had felt like it was slowly suffocating me.

Without the love and support of my parents, I never would have survived.

Second year.

When we entered the school, there had been five scholarship students, including me.

By sophomore year…

Only two remained.

People called me stubborn because I refused to quit.

I stayed until the very end and earned my diploma.

High school had remained one of my greatest complexes.

Maybe Grandma had sent me back to this point so I could finally heal that part of my past.

“Even looking at it now… this natural grass is incredible. Can you believe facilities like this are sitting in the middle of Gangnam?”

To the right of the main gate stood a golf driving range.

Straight ahead rose the three-story original school building.

To the left was the newer five-story building.

Its basement housed an Olympic-standard swimming pool.

Above ground were the third-year cafeteria, a massive indoor gymnasium that occupied the first and second floors, third-year classrooms, self-study rooms, and exclusive club rooms.

Behind the main building stood a beautiful two-story arts center.

It truly looked like an elite private academy built atop some of the most expensive land in Gangnam.

People joked that the land alone was worth well over a trillion won.

On top of that, the school’s foundation even operated its own horseback riding center in Yongin.

Back then…

I had never enjoyed any of it.

Unlike me, who had grown up as an ordinary commoner, these kids had been learning horseback riding, swimming, and golf since childhood.

As for me…

I spent every day staring at the floor with my head lowered.

But things were different now.

The first difference…

My shoulders were no longer slumped.

Feeling the soft, cushioned floor beneath my feet, I walked toward my classroom.

“Yeah… money really is the best.”

Every year, Cheonghwa poured enormous sums into improving the campus.

From the outside, ivy-covered buildings preserved a classic appearance.

Inside, however, everything had been modernized.

Central air conditioning, heating systems, and air purifiers were standard.

Unofficial parent associations quietly funded anything the school needed.

Looking around now, I noticed something I hadn’t appreciated before.

“So even their slippers were all designer brands.”

The shoe lockers held almost no Nike or Adidas.

Instead, they were filled with luxury shoes and slippers.

Most of them were brands ordinary people would never even get to see.

As for me?

I was the only one wearing cheap three-striped slippers bought from a neighborhood stationery store.

Even so…

“La la~♪”

A tune escaped my lips.

This classroom had once been a place I needed to steel myself before entering.

Now?

I didn’t feel that way at all.

Because at this very moment…

The cryptocurrency I’d short-sold was multiplying.

All I had to do was wait one month.

By then…

Not a single student in this school would be richer than me.

A quiet confidence spread through my body.

Step.

Step.

I stopped in front of the classroom.

Even the hallway floors had recently been replaced with polished marble.

“My body still remembers.”

As if following a route engraved into muscle memory, my feet carried me straight to my classroom.

Class 2-3.

The moment I saw it, complicated emotions welled up inside me.

Love.

Hatred.

Pain.

All the memories carved into this room resurfaced at once.

I entered through the rear door, which was already open.

The familiar classroom greeted me once again.

Twenty students.

A giant educational TV.

An electronic whiteboard.

New ergonomic desks and chairs that had all been replaced that same year.

Every semester, desks and chairs were adjusted to fit each student’s body.

Naturally, every classroom also came equipped with air purifiers and central heating and cooling.

“What’d you do over the weekend?”

“What else? I took a ten-hour private intensive with Teacher Choi Hyun-seok.”

“What?! The number-one Korean instructor?”

“Yep.”

“Wow! Isn’t he almost impossible to book? How’d you manage that?”

“You know how obsessed my mom is.”

“I’m so jealous…”

“We’re doing another session this Saturday. Want to join?”

“I can?”

“Well… if you really want to…”

“Minju! I love you~!”

Two girls were happily chatting.

Even I knew the name Choi Hyun-seok.

One of Gangnam’s most famous Korean-language instructors, making tens of billions of won every year.

The girl subtly showing off without making it obvious…

Kang Minju.

She had fox-like features and a short haircut that suited her perfectly.

Her grandfather had once been the director of a major hospital.

Her father currently ran a prestigious plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam.

Rumor had it their family practically shoveled money in by the truckload.

She had also been one of the people who looked down on me the most.

Even now, our eyes met for a brief second after I entered.

She immediately looked away.

As she grew older, cosmetic procedures from her father refined her face into what people called the perfect beauty.

Personally…

I found her expression insufferable.

Around her shimmered a faint pink aura.

A color perfectly suited to a fox.

I sat in my seat.

The least popular seat in this academically competitive classroom—

the one by the window in the very back.

The best private instructor in Korea?

I wasn’t jealous at all.

As long as history didn’t change too drastically because of the butterfly effect…

I could easily maintain the grades I wanted.

Not just sophomore exams.

I remembered every exam that remained before graduation.

The College Scholastic Ability Test?

Heh.

There wasn’t even any need to talk about it.

I didn’t merely predict the future.

I knew it.

It was both an opportunity…

and a privilege.

This was ridiculously unfair—in my favor.

“Minju! Me too!”

“Are there any spots left?”

Several classmates rushed over from the neighboring rows.

Everyone here was staking their lives on college entrance exams one year away.

Their wealthy parents had invested heavily in them…

and expected equally impressive results.

Watching them, I couldn’t help thinking…

The upper class didn’t maintain their position by luck alone.

People criticized them for being born with silver spoons.

But these kids worked incredibly hard.

I’d never once heard of them going to bed before midnight.

If they were already taking lessons from the country’s top instructors on weekends…

There was no mystery.

Video games?

Celebrities?

Obsessing over idols?

None of that interested the students here.

“Well… I’d have to ask my mom first.”

I almost laughed.

Already playing politics in high school.

Everything Kang Minju did was calculated.

It was her mother’s strategy.

Her mother was a fairly famous veteran actress.

Most of her roles were arrogant, sharp-tongued women from wealthy families.

The first person Minju warmly welcomed was Oh Yun-seo.

Yun-seo’s parents were both senior government officials.

Her mother was a director in the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Her father held a director-level position in the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The others asking to join weren’t from ordinary families either.

As Minju smiled, she carefully scanned everyone approaching.

She was checking whether the specific children her mother had told her to befriend were gathering around.

She really was clever.

Back then…

I hadn’t noticed any of this.

Now I did.

Experience made all the difference.

Our eyes met again.

This time…

I smiled.

“…!”

Minju frowned immediately.

In the past, I would’ve lowered my gaze without hesitation.

Actually…

I wouldn’t even have dared look up.

But I wasn’t that Ha Tae-woong anymore.

Your little fox act…

I can see right through it.

I silently conveyed that message through my eyes.

“Hmph.”

She snorted and turned away.

Yeah.

Keep thinking you’re special.

“Morning.”

“You’re here early today.”

One by one, more students entered the classroom, greeting one another.

The atmosphere was completely different from that of an ordinary public high school.

No vulgar language.

No casual swearing.

No discussions about games or anime.

Everyone waved politely, wearing refined, practiced smiles while pretending to be close.

Naturally…

I was excluded from all of it.

No one even looked at me.

They greeted one another, sat down, and either studied or chatted with people of similar status.

Amid this classroom full of exceptional people…

I stood alone like an isolated island.

“Tae-woong… you really lived an honest life.”

This place had become the core of my trauma.

To survive, I’d thrown myself obsessively into studying.

Even after entering university, I desperately tried to forget my high school years.

I even enlisted in the military partly to run away from those memories.

During basic training, I volunteered for the special forces.

Because of my previous head surgery, I could have been exempted.

Instead, I manipulated the process so I could serve as an active-duty soldier.

The brutal training hardened both my body and mind.

Thanks to those harsh years…

I managed to escape my trauma little by little.

Yet here I was again.

Back at the place where it all began.

A cold smile appeared on my lips as I surveyed the classroom objectively.

Grandma’s one billion won.

Without that inheritance…

Coming back here wouldn’t have changed anything.

It would’ve been a curse rather than an opportunity.

But now…

There were far more things I could finally attempt.

Click.

The classroom’s front door opened.

It was 8:20 a.m.

Too early for the homeroom teacher.

“Hey.”

A boy entered wearing a black backpack over one shoulder.

Short sports haircut.

About 170 centimeters tall.

Small, but lean and athletic.

With his compact head, he looked as solid as a rock.

Oh Gwang-jun.

That arrogant smile on his lips…

It hadn’t changed one bit.

The fearless confidence on his face remained exactly the same.

Dark energy seemed to radiate from him.

“Morning, Gwang-jun.”

“Have a good holiday?”

“Me? Always doing great. Hahaha.”

Laughing loudly, he walked toward my side of the room.

Then our eyes met.

He grinned.

Damn…

That smile.

I remembered it as vividly as if it had happened yesterday.

The devil who had imprisoned me inside years of darkness.

We met again.

Unlike everyone else, who treated me like I was invisible…

He always acknowledged my existence.

Because I was his favorite target.

Our eyes met again.

This time…

I didn’t look away.

In every memory I had of this classroom, I’d kept my head lowered, solving practice problems to avoid making eye contact with anyone.

But not today.

Step.

Step.

Gwang-jun stopped right beside me.

His seat was directly next to mine.

“So you’ve lost your nerve, huh? Enjoy Children’s Day? Heh.”

You bastard.

Even smiling…

You look evil.

He stared straight into my eyes without blinking.

I calmly met his gaze.

Beneath my desk, my hand quietly activated the voice recorder on my phone.

“Yeah…

It’s been far too long…”

It had been over ten years since graduation.

I never imagined I’d see Oh Gwang-jun again.

“Did Ha Tae-woong take his meds today?”

“Has he gone crazy?”

The classroom buzzed with whispers.

Everyone was shocked by my unexpected reaction.

Officially, Cheonghwa High School had no bullies.

Instead…

It had a perfectly functioning class hierarchy.

Among those students, Gwang-jun’s family ranked somewhere between the Vaishya and Kshatriya classes.

His father had recently been promoted from a provincial post to become a chief prosecutor at the Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office.

A position powerful enough to command respect even among prosecutors in Seoul.

Naturally…

Gwang-jun carried himself with even greater arrogance.

Especially when it came to tormenting scholarship students like me.

Thud.

He shoved my desk with his thigh and leaned in close.

Then barked,

“Lower your eyes, you little punk!”

No matter how strict the school rules were…

They never applied when someone was abusing a scholarship student.

I smirked.

Without looking away, I smiled once more.

Then I answered,

“No.

You lower yours… asshole.”