One Mistake, and the Bet Turns
The midterms had drained every last ounce of Yeoncheong's energy, and her friends dragged her every which way in the aftermath.
Only after Hasol checked on her half-dead state and let her go home early was she finally able to head back.
She collapsed the moment she walked through the door, and by the time she opened her eyes again, it was the next morning.
She blinked blearily, as if she couldn't understand why it was suddenly morning, but the smartphone she'd carelessly tossed onto her bed was already blaring its wake-up alarm.
'Uuuugh...'
Yeoncheong silenced the alarm, rolled out of bed, and crawled on all fours toward the bathroom.
It was an entirely unconscious reaction, born of the instinct that if she didn't start moving right now, she'd be late.
She shoved a slice of bread smeared with jam into her mouth, scooped her crumpled uniform off the floor and pulled it on, grabbed her bag, and headed straight out the door.
***
Fortunately, right after midterms, class activities were light.
Little more than checking the essay answers and going over the exam papers, so there was little chance of the collapsed Yeoncheong being disturbed.
Except.
"Hey, Yeoncheong. How'd it go?"
This midterm's results didn't just determine whether she'd be stuck in remedial classes — her bet with Nayun was riding on them too.
Thanks to Nayun asking about her test results every chance she got, Yeoncheong kept getting jolted awake every time she drifted off.
"Ahh... just check it yourself."
Yeoncheong rummaged through her desk drawer and handed the exam paper to her friend.
Nayun frowned as she looked it over.
"What the hell? You didn't even grade it?"
"If you're so curious, grade it yourself. Too sleepy."
Yeoncheong wriggled around for ages searching for a comfortable position, then let out a few raspy breaths and was out cold almost instantly.
Nayun gave her a look of utter disbelief, then turned to their other friend sitting nearby.
"She did make a bet with me, right? My reaction's totally normal, isn't it?"
"Had I known she was this exhausted, I should've just sent her straight home."
Hasol smoothed down the sleeping Yeoncheong's hair, looking apologetic.
"Sigh... a thirsty man's gotta dig his own well. What can you do."
Nayun fished the rest of the exam papers out of Yeoncheong's drawer and graded them all in her place.
"Whoa. Guess Yeoncheong really did study hard."
Hasol made no effort to hide her surprise as the red circles kept stacking up one after another.
When Nayun finished grading down to the very last question, she checked the point values and tallied up the score.
Then, glancing at the score of her friend sleeping peacefully right beside her, she muttered under her breath.
"......She did better than me."
After a few seconds of dead silence, those were the words that came out — and they said everything about the shock Nayun had just taken.
Both Nayun and Yeoncheong had scored well clear of any remedial-class danger, but it seemed Nayun was genuinely rattled that Yeoncheong, whom she'd quietly considered her inferior, had outscored her.
Hasol, who'd been peeking at both papers, grinned.
"Kim Nayun, sounds like you'd better watch your back."
Oblivious to the fact that her friend had made off with every one of her exam papers, Yeoncheong slept like the dead until lunchtime.
Until then, all the grading had been Nayun's burden to bear.
Yeoncheong didn't fully resurrect until after lunch, when she'd eaten her fill and taken a few laps around the athletic field.
"Seriously, how do you sleep through everything without waking up once?"
Once Yeoncheong had finished brushing her teeth and returned looking presentable, Nayun handed her a stack of exam papers.
"...You can pass out like that when you're tired, okay. And what's this?"
"What do you think? Your exam papers. I graded them for you."
"Oh, thanks. When'd you grab them?"
Yeoncheong smiled as she flipped through the papers one by one.
"Everything looks pretty solid."
It had been grueling, but seeing the fruits of her effort with her own eyes like this filled her with pride.
Hasol, who had watched her check every single score so far, spoke up.
"Pretty neck and neck so far, huh?"
At those words, Yeoncheong sized up the current state of their bet, her gaze sliding toward Nayun.
"Don't tell me... you don't have a single at-risk subject headed for remedials either?"
"Don't tell me my ass. Obviously not."
As the two of them squared off in their tense little showdown, an inevitable question occurred to Hasol.
"What happens if you both end up with zero remedial classes? Is that a draw, or are you splitting it by some other criteria?"
At Hasol's question, Yeoncheong and Nayun stared at each other, dumbfounded.
"Uh..."
It turned out neither of them had thought that far ahead.
***
With no agreement on what to do in case of a tie, the bell rang to end lunch.
"Lunch is over. Sit down, everyone."
Yeoncheong darted her eyes toward the Korean literature teacher, who always walked in at precisely the right second, and licked her lips nervously.
"We can figure that out when the time comes."
"Yeah, and since I'm winning anyway, no point making a fuss about it."
"Ha! You're stealing the words right out of my mouth."
Contrary to expectations that Korean would be the decisive battleground of their bet—
"How on earth did you do this well?"
"You're one to talk. Don't tell me you only studied Korean?"
The two of them sneaked sidelong glances at each other as they compared their eerily similar scores.
Yeoncheong had learned her lesson the hard way all through first semester, and since this particular Korean teacher's exams were notoriously brutal, she'd sunk an enormous amount of time into the subject.
But the same was true of her opponent, Nayun.
Their essay scores, which the teacher had walked them through, were nearly identical too.
Korean, it became clear, would decide nothing about the outcome of the bet.
During break time, as the two of them traded barbed well-wishes — looks like one of us is headed to remedials after all—
"Everyone, let's check your scores."
Teacher Jisu came into the classroom and settled the class back into their seats.
"Scores are out already?"
To one student's question, the homeroom teacher answered as she opened a brown envelope.
"The math exam was on the first day, remember? I stayed late and graded every single one myself."
"So we're not going over the exam?"
The teacher pulled the answer sheets and white slips out of the envelope as she continued.
"Scores first. We'll go over the exam no matter how late it takes, so don't worry. I'm swamped because they've asked us to finalize the remedial class roster first."
The long Chuseok holiday was about to begin.
Apparently the school wanted the remedial roster locked down before it did.
"By the way, what happens if we can't clear remedials before the Chuseok break?"
Perhaps because she was their homeroom teacher, the questions came flying thick and fast in an easygoing atmosphere.
The teacher tapped the answer sheets against her desk a few times to straighten them, then finally looked up at her students.
"Hmm... it's not finalized yet, but I believe they'll be replaced with an assignment?"
"Ehhhh..."
At the groan of the class, who had all been quietly hoping the whole thing would just blow over, Teacher Jisu stifled a laugh.
"How many days of remedials could we possibly have before Chuseok? If that were the plan, I wouldn't have mentioned remedial classes in the first place."
Having spread the answer sheets, OMR cards, and score slips across her desk, the homeroom teacher called Hasol up first.
"No making a ruckus. Hasol, come up and check yours."
"Yes, ma'am."
As the students filed up one by one in number order to check their scores, Teacher Jisu, as if just remembering something, pursed her lips.
"Oh, right. Was this exam a bit hard for you?"
The Class 1 students exchanged wary glances for a moment, then began nodding one after another.
"It was harder than we expected."
"The essay section this time was brutal."
The overall consensus was that the test had been challenging across the board, but the essay questions especially so.
At the students' grumbling, the teacher tapped her chin with her pen.
"Hmm... maybe the material itself was just difficult. I'll put in some effort for the finals. Ah, Nayun, come up here."
"Yes, ma'am."
Nayun walked up to the teacher's desk with her face wound tight as a drum.
And then.
"I'm sorry — I'm in remedials?"
At her friend's flustered outburst, a smile crept across Yeoncheong's lips, who had been sitting idly staring out the window.
Hearing Yeoncheong's laughter, Nayun slammed her hand on the desk and turned back to the teacher.
"Am I really in remedials? For real?"
"Ah... if something seems off, you can... double-check, dear."
Startled, Teacher Jisu pointed at the OMR card and answer sheet she'd set aside.
"Hold on a second."
Nayun grabbed her exam paper from her seat and marched straight up onto the podium.
As if being pulled in by gravity, she scrutinized the grading for any errors.
And then.
"Teacher! Teacher! Here!"
"What is it?"
Nayun shook the teacher by the arm and jabbed a finger at the answer sheet.
"Oh — they added the essay points up wrong."
The teacher recalculated the score, drew two lines through the original figure in red pen, and wrote in the corrected one.
Teacher Jisu looked over Nayun's score and cracked a grin.
"Wow, Nayun, you squeaked out of remedials by the skin of your teeth."
"Yes!"
Fist pumped in triumph, Nayun finished signing and headed back to her seat, and the teacher resumed the score checks with a reminder that even teachers make mistakes, so don't just skim them.
"Ugh... damn it. I thought I was dead."
"Aww, too bad..."
Yeoncheong heaved a great sigh of disappointment.
Nayun, who had fully expected her to blow up in fury, instead just grinned and patted her shoulder.
"What's gotten into you? Did the tension finally snap your brain?"
Nayun glanced around once, then leaned in close to Yeoncheong's ear and whispered.
"I took a little peek earlier — you're in remedials for math."
"Ha! Like hell I am."
Yeoncheong didn't believe a word of it.
Not until she walked up to the teacher's desk and confirmed it with her own eyes.
***
A score lower than expected.
Her round blue eyes went wide with disbelief as she stared up at the teacher.
Teacher Jisu, perhaps understanding why, quietly slid the OMR card in front of her.
"You'll want to check this."
"...Yes."
Yeoncheong's head lowered slowly toward the OMR card.
The moment she compared the markings on the card against her exam paper, despair arrived in an instant.
"Oh... oh no..."
Yeoncheong clutched her head in her hands.
Instead of marking the answers to the last two questions, she'd filled in the card with the answers to the two questions before them.
Even the proctoring teacher hadn't caught it, since nothing about it looked out of place to the naked eye.
Teacher Jisu glanced over Yeoncheong's exam paper and gave her shoulder a light, consoling pat.
"Yeoncheong, that's really a shame."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Yeoncheong finished her signature, bowed her head deeply, and trudged back to her seat.
It had been entirely her own blunder, so there was nothing to say in her defense — and her sagging shoulders drew quiet sympathy.
Nayun snickered at her as she returned.
"I'm winning right now, aren't I?"
"It's not over yet."
Face-down on her desk, turning only her head, the look in Yeoncheong's eyes was fierce.
All because of one single mistake.
Surely, she thought, she could close the gap soon enough.
But.
That moment never came — not until every last score had been checked.