I Returned as a High School Girl

Kang Ra-Eun first decided to tell Jin Hye-Seung the reason why she had decided to move houses. The main reason was the construction noise.

“Oh, I know about that area as well,” Hye-Seung remarked as if she understood how Ra-Eun felt. “There are a lot of redevelopment projects planned in that area. Even after the construction next to your apartment complex finishes, there are going to be more of them for a while.”

Ra-Eun unconsciously trembled, to which Hye-Seung smiled brightly from seeing her cute reaction.

“Do you like peace and quiet, Ra-Eun?” she asked.

“Not necessarily. I just want at least my home to be a place where I can rest without any disturbance whatsoever.”

Ra-Eun did not want her peaceful time at home to be disturbed when she had worked hard outside. Hence, she wanted at least her home to be a place where she could just let everything go.

“If you want someplace quiet... Are you planning on moving to an apartment this time as well?” Hye-Seung asked.

“No, it doesn’t have to be an apartment.”

“Oh, really? That’s perfect.”

Hye-Seung seemed to have the perfect home for them for sale. She turned on the projector installed on the meeting room table, which showed a certain stand-alone house complex located in Seoul.

‘That house looks familiar.’

The feeling was amplified as Hye-Seung went through the slides of photos.

“Do a lot of famous people live there?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Yes, they do.”

Not only famous celebrities, but entrepreneurs, artists, and politicians lived there as well. This housing complex had appeared on broadcasts as a place that only the top 0.1% could afford. Seo Yi-Jun gulped as soon as he heard what kind of place it was.

“It must be super expensive,” he muttered.

He was not wrong, since it was several times more expensive than Ra-Eun’s current home. Hye-Seung turned to the next slide with her remote and continued her explanation.

“One of the houses just happened to be put up for sale not long ago. I’m sure you can tell from the slide, but there is a private parking lot that only residents of the complex can use. If you’ve lived in an apartment, you’ve experienced the stress from the lack of parking spaces, right?”

Ra-Eun had several times, especially during the late evening. It was no problem whenever she was given a ride by Shin Yu-Bin, but she had come to experience the issue whenever she used her own car. She sometimes had to park at the outdoor parking lot and walk all the way to her apartment when she couldn’t find any parking spaces. If they moved into the house that Hye-Seung was talking about, that issue would disappear.

There were two more good points about the complex.

“It’s close to the company building and broadcasting station.”

Yi-Jun nodded in succession. “You’re right. We’ll be there in a flash by car.”

They were pulled in by the ease of commute. The other good point was that...

“This place can’t be anything but peaceful and quiet,” Hye-Seung remarked.

Her remark left a deep impression in Ra-Eun’s mind. She had not told Hye-Seung this, but she knew the place that Hye-Seung was introducing to them very well; she had frequented that complex back when she had been Kim Han-Gyo’s bodyguard. Hence, Ra-Eun knew that everything Hye-Seung was saying was true.

“Does someone live there at the moment?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Yes, but they ended up putting it up on the market for an unavoidable reason.”

“An unavoidable reason?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but... Oh, I guess it won’t matter. It’s already on the news, after all.”

Ra-Eun’s eyes narrowed for a moment.

“The house owner must be someone famous enough for us to know just from hearing their name,” she stated.

“That’s right.”

If they were on the news, it was by no means an ordinary citizen. It was no wonder, since the fact that they lived in this housing complex already proved that they weren’t.

“The house owner’s health has been deteriorating lately, so they’re planning on heading down to the countryside as soon as they’re discharged from the hospital. That’s why they had put their home up for sale.”

Ra-Eun’s familiar feeling grew stronger as Hye-Seung continued to talk.

“President Jin, Would you mind...” Ra-Eun slurred. “Telling us who the current house owner is?”

A certain name popped up in Ra-Eun’s head. It was none other than...

“Congressman Kim Han-Gyo,” Hye-Seung answered.

***

Kim Han-Gyo, who was close to being discharged from the hospital, did his best to get out of his hospital bed. The chief secretary, who had left the room for only a moment, was shocked to see Han-Gyo struggling and rushed to support him.

“Are you okay, Congressman?”

“...I’m fine. I can stand up by myself.”

Han-Gyo pushed his chief secretary away. He got in his wheelchair and sighed deeply. The chief secretary casually pushed the wheelchair from behind.

“Where were you trying to go?” he asked.

“I’m fine with wherever. I just want out of this damn room.”

Han-Gyo wanted some fresh air. The chief secretary agreed and pushed the wheelchair toward the first floor lobby. There were a few people who had visited the hospital. Although there weren’t many people since this ward was exclusive to VIPs, there were still people present.

“So, this was where Congressman Kim Han-Gyo was hospitalized.”

“Shh! He’ll hear you.”

“I guess even a snake like him takes care of his health. Well, considering the enormous pile of money that he must have extorted, he must have no problem affording it.”

Most people did not see Han-Gyo in a positive light. He felt like he was a criminal. No, he had actually committed several crimes, but he was only free at the moment because the investigation had not fully finished yet. The thought of being unable to avoid serving a sentence this time when the investigation finished, pressured him once again.

“Looks like taking a stroll was a bad idea.”

The chief secretary was stumped on how to reply as Han-Gyo muttered to himself. He changed the subject to lighten the mood.

“Congressman. The madam signed the contract for the house.”

“She did? Already?”

“Yes. There just happened to be a buyer.”

Han-Gyo had planned to sell his house and move into his other house in the countryside to recuperate for the time being.

“I don’t believe it has been on sale for that long,” Han-Gyo remarked.

“Yes. It’s been exactly three days.”

“I can’t believe it was sold already.”

Although it was a highly popular housing complex, it was not someplace where just anyone could move into. Just the home itself cost billions of won; even the considerably rich would hesitate a few times to purchase it. Hence, Han-Gyo had not expected his home to be sold so quickly.

“The madam went to sign the contract herself,” the chief secretary remarked.

“Then she must have seen the buyer with her own eyes.”

“Yes, that is what I’ve heard.”

“Who was it?”

Han-Gyo was curious about who had purchased his home. Could it have been a famous entrepreneur? Or a top celebrity? The answer was the latter.

“I’ve heard that it was Miss Kang Ra-Eun.”

“Wh-What...?!”

Han-Gyo’s entire body froze.

***

Seo Yi-Seo, who had gone out to meet with Choi Ro-Mi, finally returned home and took off her heels in exhaustion. Yi-Jun, who had been in the kitchen, peeked out toward the front door.

“Welcome back, sis.”

“Where’s Ra-Eun? Did she go out somewhere?”

Yi-Jun pointed toward the tightly shut bathroom door instead of answering, which was more than enough of an answer.

“How did the house viewing go?”

“Uhh... We looked at a few, but...”

“But what? You guys didn’t find anything good on sale?”

“No, it’s the opposite.”

Yi-Jun had woken up super early in the morning and resolved himself to be viewing houses all day, but that resolve had gone down the drain.

“Ra-Eun noona decided on a house almost immediately. She signed the contract and even paid the deposit.”

“Really?”

It was hard to believe. Ra-Eun was a considerably cautious woman; she took everything into account in her head with whatever she did and calculated the best possible option. Although she decided in a heartbeat on trivial things, buying a house was not trivial in the slightest. She should have thought about it for far longer.

“Not just that, she signed the contract without even taking a look at the house?”

“She didn’t even look at it?”

“Yeah. It's hard to believe, right? I couldn’t believe it either.”

Yi-Jun had asked Ra-Eun multiple times that she should decide after taking a look at the house, but she did not listen at all. Ra-Eun had not been this decisive on the house in the beginning, but her attitude suddenly changed at a certain point; it had been when she found out that the current owner was Kim Han-Gyo.

Ra-Eun came out of the bathroom and nonchalantly greeted Yi-Seo, who had been listening to Yi-Jun’s story about what had happened today. However, Yi-Seo couldn’t be as nonchalant as her.

“I heard from Yi-Jun that you signed the contract without even taking a look at the house.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“But why...?”

Yi-Seo couldn’t understand Ra-Eun’s actions in the slightest, but Ra-Eun had expected Yi-Seo to react this way.

“You don’t have to worry. A tiny bit of repair work and that house will be perfect.” 𝘣𝘦𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑐𝑜𝘮

“How do you know that? You haven’t even seen it.”

“Yeah, I haven’t.”

Ra-Eun had never looked at every inch of the place. The only experience she had of the place was during the house party that Kim Han-Gyo had hosted while inviting members of GNF. However, that was only in terms of her experience as ‘Kang Ra-Eun’; it was a completely different story when it came to her experience as ‘Park Geon-Woo’.

Geon-Woo of the past had visited Han-Gyo’s home so many times that his memory of every nook and cranny of the place was still crystal clear.

‘I hate myself for still remembering it so vividly.’

However, it couldn’t be helped since Ra-Eun had absolutely no idea at the time that she would experience a future like this.

“In any case, you can trust me. You won’t feel discomfort living there in any way. Okay?”

Yi-Seo raised the white flag at Ra-Eun’s request to trust her. Not trusting Ra-Eun was impossible for her.