A Pressure-Free Midterm
After explaining herself that evening — treats included — and finally clearing away every last suspicion, Yeoncheong and her friends went back to studying as usual.
They had received permission to use the club room at night, after all. But since the whole point had been midterm prep, it only made sense that things unfolded the way they did.
The five of them simply stayed together later into the night, instead of parting ways before dinner to head home or to a study cafe.
Of course, there were plenty of small events along the way.
"I don't know about the studying, but it's soft. I'll give it that."
"Where on earth did you get this many?"
"Never thought my plushies would come in handy like this."
"Guys, it's kinda cute when we all do it together. Let's take a commemorative photo!"
And this is supposed to help us study? Following Suyeon's lead, they each ended up hugging a plushie in their laps while they worked.
"What's this thing shoved in the corner of the shelf?"
"Kyaaaah!"
"Are you insane?! Don't kick it like that! Do you know how much that cost?!"
"What? Is there treasure inside or somethiiiing?!"
Nayun also nearly fainted upon learning the price of the stack of boxes Yeoncheong had left behind because carrying them home again was too much of a hassle — and the rounded little lamp sitting on the desk.
"What should we have for dinner tonight?"
"Malatang? Tteokbokki?"
"Ugh, please... aren't you two sick of those yet? I'll just cook for us — let's eat something else for once."
Malatang, tteokbokki, malatang, tteokbokki — worn down by that hellish either-or, Yeoncheong ended up suggesting they have dinner at her place instead.
All things considered, the days were anything but boring for people who did nothing but study.
Time passed.
One day, when the pitch-black sky outside the school windows no longer felt strange to look at, Nayun flung her pen down and stretched.
"Hnnngh! Is this torture almost over?"
"Over? Midterms haven't even started yet. This is where the real fight begins."
She was the one who'd bet everything on the regular admissions track, after all.
When Yeoncheong — whose exam stress was comparatively light — said that, Nayun picked her pen back up and waved it side to side.
"Don't you know starting is half the battle? If you start tomorrow, you're already halfway done. Which means you're almost finished. Haaahm..."
"You look especially exhausted today. Going straight to bed when you get home?"
"Obviously. Gotta keep my condition in check."
Whether she'd learned it from watching Yeoncheong last year or what, she was apparently so serious about midterms that she'd been adjusting her sleep cycle for days in advance. By this hour, she was starting to nod off.
At that, Hasol closed the book she'd been reading and glanced at the desk clock.
"It's a little early, but Nayun says she's tired too. Should we call it a day?"
"Sounds good. No point pushing ourselves the day before exams."
Without needing to decide who went first, Yeoncheong and her friends rose from their seats.
They returned the desk clock and portable lamps to their usual spots with practiced ease, woke the half-asleep Nayun, and filed out of the club room.
"Yeoncheong, if you're scared, you can hold my hand on the way out."
"No thanks. Do I look like a coward to you?"
Seoha raised an eyebrow at the curt rebuttal.
"You weren't? You asked me to come with you last week because you were too scared to go to the bathroom alone at night."
"Ha! I was the only one? Weren't you all too scared to go alone either?!"
The darkness that settled over the school — especially over the old annex — gave everything a faintly mournful air.
So Yeoncheong and her friends deliberately kept up a loud stream of trivial chatter as they headed for the main gate.
Perhaps because they'd studied harder than usual, Yeoncheong tossed the already-half-asleep Nayun into Seoha's car and said her goodbyes to the others.
"Get home safe."
"You too."
"Don't worry about us, we're riding with Seoha."
"Don't stay up studying too late and end up late tomorrow."
Worried as they were about her walking home alone at night, her friends stubbornly refused to leave until they'd watched her go — so Yeoncheong turned her back first and made her slow way home.
Maybe it was just because it was only the five of them.
Their roughly ten days of self-imposed night study had been more fun than expected — and with that, the first formal exams of their third year arrived.
The first day of exams passed without incident, and Yeoncheong and her friends naturally gathered in the club room.
"Seoha! Lend me today's test papers!"
The moment she walked in, Nayun laid the test papers of the school's unshakeable number one in the middle of the table like an answer key and started checking her own answers against them.
Try as they might to play it cool, curiosity won out — and one by one, the other friends pulled out their own papers to compare answers as well.
Then one of them, having counted how many questions didn't match Seoha's, stilled her trembling lips and asked,
"Seoha. Do you think you did well on today's exams?"
"Hmm... today felt pretty relaxed."
Which, by Seoha's standards, meant she was already halfway certain of a high score on all of them.
Only then did Nayun's trembling lips curl all the way up to her ears in a grin.
"If that's true, that might be the best I've done on any exam so far? Great start."
Who could complain when effort paid off in results?
Even if that effort happened to be the studying she usually loathed.
Nayun stuffed the day's test papers into her bag and hummed a little tune as she turned to studying for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the saying that hard work never betrays you applied to Yeoncheong as well.
"Oh, this was my best one yet, too."
She had three smart friends to ask whenever she got stuck on something.
And having someone beside her meant she could hold her focus a little longer than when she studied alone at home — that part probably made the biggest difference.
Hearing that both of them had outdone expectations, Suyeon let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew... good thing we didn't actually bet on it two-to-one. That could've been bad."
"Don't worry. For me, today's fine — tomorrow and the last day are the real problem."
Yeoncheong chuckled and waved off her friend's concern.
It was true that this was her best exam stretch so far, but a big part of that was that her strongest subjects had all been clustered at the front of the schedule.
But Hasol told her not to sell herself short and reminded her of all the work she'd put in.
"You studied hard specifically to avoid remedial classes, didn't you, Yeoncheong? Studying is all about momentum. Keep that momentum going and stay confident all the way through midterms."
"She's right. With friends like us sitting next to you, you're obviously going to do well. If you don't, we'll be hurt."
With even Seoha pumping her up from the side, Yeoncheong had no choice but to shrug and take back her earlier words.
"Fine, fine. No more whining."
Knock. Knock.
At the sound, Yeoncheong and her four friends all turned their eyes toward the door.
The source of the noise, however, was inside the club room itself.
Tapping on the desk, having fooled everyone, Nayun addressed her friends with perfect seriousness.
"Excuse me. We have exams tomorrow too, so let's study quietly, shall we?"
Their friend — the same one who whined about how hard everything was every single day — speaking in the most world-weary solemn voice imaginable.
"What is wrong with her?"
"I have goosebumps."
"If anyone heard that, they'd think you were ranked first."
"She's killing herself holding in laughter right after lecturing us. Hilarious."
They shuddered. They twisted their faces as if they'd seen something they could never unsee. They let out exasperated, hollow laughs — all at once.
If the ones watching could barely hold it together, how was the one who'd said it supposed to keep a straight face?
"Wh-what... did I say something wrong? You guys should hurry up and study too. Haha!"
And with that, Nayun finally cracked.
Together with her friend, who confessed she'd gotten chills from her own words, Yeoncheong laughed her way through yet another dull day of endless test prep.
The next day.
From here on out, it was nothing but her weak subjects — thinking she should squeeze in a bit more studying, Yeoncheong arrived at school early and ran into two friends who'd had the exact same idea.
"What is the speaker's intent in this passage?"
"Intent? Hold on. Hold on, let me think..."
The two quizzing each other to review what they'd studied were Nayun and Seobin — the two whose bond had deepened back in remedial classes.
Each was absorbed in her own work.
Yeoncheong slipped in unnoticed, quietly set her bag down at her seat, and headed toward the pair.
Nayun had her eyes squeezed shut and her index finger pressed to her temple, looking completely lost. Seobin caught sight of Yeoncheong approaching and silently signaled her to keep quiet.
"Oh! I remember now."
"Remember what?"
When Yeoncheong rested her chin on her shoulder, Nayun shrieked and convulsed with laughter.
"Hwaahhk!"
Only after realizing it was Yeoncheong did she start whacking her arm, sputtering in protest.
"Are you crazy?! You scared the hell out of me!"
Perched on her friend's lap, Yeoncheong smirked with satisfaction.
"See? If we compete at who scares easier, I bet I can actually beat you."
"How is that a challenge the second you walk in?"
"Who said anything about a challenge? Here, eat this and calm down."
She popped an alphabet chocolate into Nayun's grumbling mouth, then naturally held out a handful to Seobin as well.
"For me too?"
"Obviously."
Seobin stared in surprise — she hadn't expected to get any.
They were fairly close, or so Yeoncheong thought. Maybe it was just her personality; a baseline attitude of politely deferring was always there underneath.
Yeoncheong pressed the chocolate firmly into her hand and whispered in her ear.
"It's a bribe."
"A bribe?"
"Quiz me along with you. I want to check how well I've memorized things."
Just then, Nayun — finished with her chocolate — raised her voice.
"Hey, this is a two-person session. What makes you think you can butt in? Go find Hasol or somebody else."
"Nobody else is here yet. We're all pressed for time — let's help each other out."
It was impossible to say who was exactly who, but the way they bickered back and forth was straight out of one of those old cartoons with a cat and a mouse.
"You two really get along."
The words slipped out of Seobin's mouth before she knew it — and then,
"Who, me?"
"With her?"
The two replies came at the exact same instant, without a hair's difference, as if they'd rehearsed it. She couldn't help but chuckle.
It had all started with the first exam of the dreaded second day — Korean, the subject everyone worried about most.
Having survived another treacherous day, Yeoncheong and her friends gathered once more in the club room.
In the dead center of the table, the chocolates that Yeoncheong, Suyeon, and Hasol had each brought were piled together.
"Ugh... today was genuinely brutal."
Tearing open a wrapper and popping a chocolate into her mouth, Suyeon slumped back in her chair.
The whole student body had been grumbling about how hard every single exam was today.
With the exception of Yeoncheong — whose burden was light — all of her friends were completely drained.
"But tomorrow's the last day, right? Hang in there."
At Yeoncheong's encouragement, chocolates distributed one by one to each outstretched hand, her friends' lips twitched.
"Wow... look at her, all relaxed because all she has to do is avoid remedial classes."
"Must be nice. Sooo convenient."
"Hey, it'll be my turn to struggle later. I'm handing these out while I can still afford to, so take them and be grateful."
After all, if every one of her friends got into university through rolling admissions and settled their futures before she did, the situation would flip entirely.
"Then you'll all have to take care of me" — she tossed the joke out with an easy grin.
Everyone voiced their hopes that it would turn out exactly that way, and Yeoncheong was gathering up the leftover wrappers in one pile when—
"Oh, Yeoncheong. I've got a use for my Favor Pass. Can I cash it in?"
Nayun, revived by the chocolate, abruptly derailed the conversation.
"What is it? Let me hear it first, then I'll decide."
Wondering what kind of favor could possibly come up in the middle of exam season, the other friends leaned in to listen too.
It's nothing big, Nayun insisted, lowering their expectations — then argued that if it were nothing big, there'd be no reason to use a Favor Pass at all.
Urged to just spit it out already, Nayun scratched her head, feeling oddly self-conscious herself.
"Let me crash at your place. Just for one day."
"Huh?"
As Yeoncheong tilted her head, wondering if she'd heard right, the other friends' eyes went wide too.
It's nothing big, she'd said...
To the others — Suyeon and Seoha in particular — it sounded like the biggest favor in the world.