I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 9: Debt Settler (1)

In the morning of the day after the drama aired, Kang Ra-Eun received a text from Seo Yi-Seo.

[Ra-Eun, you’re number one on trending searches!]

Ra-Eun was annoyed rather than happy at the news of her abrupt number one ranking.

“Sigh... Shit!”

She knew why she was on trending searches better than anyone.

‘It’s obviously because of that drama!’

Fortunately, the keywords for the trending search were Devil’s Touch University Girl instead of her own name, but screenshots of her smile were being uploaded all over online.

She checked the images of her spreading through the internet using the laptop that she had bought from the money that they earned through stock trading. There were some people who took a photo of the TV screen with their phones, and others who put up high-definition screenshots on streaming platforms.

‘What a mess.’

Ra-Eun's temper turned for the worse first thing in the morning. As soon as she entered the living room, she could hear something being printed from Kang Ra-Hyuk’s room. Ra-Hyuk gasped as he saw his little sister when he came out of his room, and she narrowed her eyes when he hid a piece of paper behind him.

“What are you hiding?” Ra-Eun questioned.

“Huh? Wh-What do you mean?” Ra-Hyuk stuttered.

“You just hid something behind your back, idiot.”

“I-It’s nothing.”

“Nothing, my ass.”

Even if he could fool the heavens, he could not fool his livid little sister. Ra-Eun overpowered Ra-Hyuk by force.

“Hand it over now,” she expressed.

“Owww! Why is a girl like you so strong?!”

“Hand it over before I break your arm.”

“O-Okay! Here! Take it and let go of my arm!”

Ra-Hyuk soon surrendered to Ra-Eun’s repression. Her appearance in the drama was on the piece of paper that he had printed.

“Are you insane? Why are you printing images of your little sister?! I thought you were into western girls!” she shouted.

“I told you to stop talking about porn! And it’s not like I printed it because I wanted to!” he exclaimed.

“Then what?!”

“...”

Ra-Hyuk looked toward the wall right of the living room sofa. Ra-Eun’s final exam report card was hanging there framed in an album. Their father was so happy about the fact she had scored first that he decided to display it up on the wall.

“Dad asked me to print an image of your prettiest scene,” Ra-Hyuk said.

“Why?”

“He said he was gonna frame it next to your report card.”

Ra-Eun unconsciously sighed. “I guess he’s gonna brag about it all over the neighborhood.”

It was obvious.

“Probably. How could he not be happy when his daughter appeared on TV?”

Ra-Eun wouldn’t know how he would feel.

‘Nor do I want to know.’

She wanted to rip that piece of paper into pieces, but she couldn’t bring herself to.

‘My former temper’s all gone now.’

In the end, Ra-Eun scratched her head and gave the piece of paper back to Ra-Hyuk.

“...Take it.”

“I’m gonna frame it, okay?”

“Frame it, exchange it for taffy, do whatever you want.”

What a terrible way to start the day.

***

Ra-Eun experienced something unusual as she went to the convenience store to buy something to eat. The part-timer had recognized her.

‘I should’ve worn a mask or something if I knew this was gonna happen.’

She didn’t think there would be people who’d recognize her from her few seconds of appearance in a drama. She regretted doing it, but it couldn’t have been helped.

‘I had no choice but to do it to form a connection with Ji Han-Seok.’

There was nothing more important to her than that. While she was heading home, she received a call from Chief Jung. She pondered whether to take it or not, but she reluctantly accepted it.

“Hello?” she answered lifelessly. However, Chief Jung’s tone was as lively as it could be.

- Ra-Eun! Don’t be surprised and listen! You see, Director Son...!

“No, thank you,” Ra-Eun rejected flatly.

Chief Jung was momentarily lost for words, but pulled himself back together and continued.

- You just rejected without even hearing what it was.

“I’m sure it’s something like ‘We’ve increased your screen time, so appear again’, isn’t it?

- ...Are you a fortune teller? How did you know?

Just the two facts that Ra-Eun’s popularity was verified and that Chief Jung just mentioned Director Son were enough to come to that conclusion.

- Director Son said he was going to upgrade your character from an extra to a minor role. You’ll get more scenes, and you’ll even have lines. It’s great, right?

“Not in the slightest.”

- Why?! This is a golden opportunity to make a name for yourself!

“Golden opportunity or not, I’m not interested.”

Chief Jung was dumbfounded. Any rookie actor in Ra-Eun’s shoes would be jumping and cheering from joy, but she was a peculiar rookie actress who didn’t want to become famous. He had never met someone like her in his life.

- O-Okay. In that case, I’ll try to set up a private meeting with you and Han-Seok. You said you wanted to make a connection with him, didn’t you? How about now?

It was an appealing offer. Not just that...

‘I’ll be able to continue meeting Han-Seok if I keep appearing in that drama.’

She absolutely hated the idea, but she had no choice but to endure it for the sake of her revenge. Chairman Ji Seong-Geum’s support would be indispensable to face Congressman Kim Han-Gyo.

“Okay, I’ll do it. But in exchange, you have to keep your promise this time as well. If you don’t, I’ll ghost you just like Mi-Jeong or whatever that girl’s name was.”

- Okay, I got it! Just trust me!

After ending the call, Ra-Eun wondered, “Do I need to buy some fake glasses to go along with the mask?”

She was overly worried about the days to come.

***

On Monday at 6 AM, Ra-Eun headed toward a nearby park to jog while wearing sportswear, and went home to shower after breaking a sweat. She found it tiresome every single time she had to dry her hair.

‘I wish I could just cut it.’

She shouldn’t have listened to the circumstances of her hair from Ra-Hyuk. She regretted it, but she couldn’t do anything now that she had found out about it. Ra-Hyuk rushed toward her just as she was about to go back to her room after finally getting her hair dry.

“Miss Kang! Where are you going? The stock market’s about to open!” he exclaimed.

“Just do as I wrote in the notepad that I gave you. Do I have to coach you through every little thing?”

“But y-you never know!”

Even his voice was trembling. It was understandable, since the money that they could invest had already surpassed 100 million won through stock trading. 105 million, to be exact. It was an amount that Ra-Hyuk couldn’t ever earn even if he were to die and be reborn. His hands trembled at the thought that a few clicks of a mouse could vaporize a hundred million won.

Ra-Eun sighed at her pathetic older brother. “You shouldn’t be fretting over chump change like this when we’re gonna be investing even more in the future.”

“Even more?” Ra-Hyuk asked.

“We’ve gotta pump it up to at least 3 billion won by the end of this year.”

It was almost thirty times what they had now.

“W-We can earn up to that much?”

“Of course,” Ra-Eun declared.

“Do we even need that much money? As long as we have 1 bil... No, even 500 mil, we’ll have enough money to pay off all our family’s debts and more.”

Ra-Eun had a reason for needing even more money than that.

“We need to prepare the money now to start a business down the line.”

“A business? Us?” Ra-Hyuk asked.

“No. To be exact, I’m gonna leave it to someone else.”

The name of the man who will act as her hands and feet to make her money was clearly engraved in her mind.

***

“Fuck, how did they know where I was...?!”

A man was frantically running away from his pursuers. He was in a terrible state, as if?his clothes hadn't been washed or changed for days. Several individuals were chasing the man dressed like a homeless person.

“He ran that way!”

“I swear I’ll catch him today!”

The homeless man jumped into an alleyway and knocked down a trash can to slow down his pursuers, but...

Thump!

He was unexpectedly attacked by men whom he hadn’t noticed were waiting in front of him.

Crash—!

The homeless man lost his balance and was knocked down onto the ground. Men in suits surrounded him in the alleyway from the front and back. He had nowhere to run. A man with a long scar on his face forcefully grabbed the homeless man’s collar.

“Where do you think you’re running to without paying off your debt?!”

Smack!

Blood flowed down from the homeless man’s nostril.

“I-I said I’ll pay you ba—”

Thump!

The scarred man punched his face again.

“We’ve given you plenty of time. You’re the one who didn’t pay, it’s as simple as that.” The scarred man threw the homeless man against the wall and lit a cigarette, and then...

Sizzle—!

“Arghh!”

He pressed the lit cigarette against the homeless man’s palm. A man wearing sunglasses stopped him.

“Don’t damage his body. We need to harvest his organs.”

“I’m sorry, Boss,” the scarred man apologized.

The homeless man’s pupils greatly dilated once the man in sunglasses mentioned that they would harvest his organs. He tried to shout to ask them to spare him, but the man in sunglasses covered his mouth.

“All right, stay still,” the man said while taking out a handkerchief soaked with an unknown liquid. As the man was about to knock out the homeless man with it...

“That’s enough, misters.”

Thud.

A girl with a baseball cap hiding her face jumped down from atop the wall. The men froze. The man in sunglasses stared fixedly at the girl. She looked to be a high schooler.

“Who are you?” the man asked.

Ra-Eun, who suddenly appeared before the men, introduced herself.

“This man’s debt settler.”