Midterm Exams, Part 2
The math exam had just ended.
Slide.
As soon as the teacher left, the classroom erupted into a noisy chatter.
Everyone was complaining about how brutally difficult the math exam had been.
"Holy crap, that math test was insane!"
"Ah, I totally bombed it!"
"Seriously, that last page was just impossible."
"Sigh, I couldn't solve it either."
Amidst the chaos, Jang Junyeob walked over to me.
"Hey, hey. How'd it go? Think you made some lucky guesses?"
"No."
"I knew it. You've got nothing on me. I feel like the God of Guessing descended upon me today. Hehe!"
He snickered, but I cut him off.
"That's not what I meant... I mean, I didn't guess. I solved all of them."
Even though I said it plainly, he didn't believe me and kept laughing.
"Pfft! Dude, I literally saw you bubble in your answers and immediately pass out on your desk!"
"I slept because I finished solving them."
"Tsk, tsk. At least make your lies believable. The exam had barely started when you went to sleep. How could you have solved everything?"
"It's the truth."
"Yeah, right. Nice try."
While we were bickering, Oh Yunsung joined us.
"Hey, bottom-feeders. What are you two losers whispering about so happily?"
"Whoa, I'm not the bottom of the class. Don't lump me in with him."
"Last place, second-to-last place... same difference."
"Hey, those are completely different!"
Ignoring Junyeob's protests, Yunsung waved his exam sheet.
"Anyway, let's compare answers to see how well we guessed. I got the answer key from Ildong."
Kim Ildong was one of the top students in the entire school.
Naturally, he was rank one in our classroom.
As soon as the exam ended, a crowd of kids had swarmed around him to check their answers.
It seemed Yunsung had been part of that crowd. Since his grades usually hovered around the upper tier, he was quite sensitive about his scores.
"Oh, nice. Let's check. Let's see."
Junyeob eagerly leaned in.
He quickly unfolded his exam sheet and turned to me.
"Hey, you said you solved them all, right? Let's see. Hurry up and show us your sheet."
I flattened my exam sheet on the desk.
Rustle.
Glancing at the few scribbled numbers on my paper, he scoffed.
"Pfft! What is this? These look like elementary school multiplication tables. You call this solving?"
"I solved it."
For problems like these, there was no need to write down complex calculations.
But Junyeob, completely oblivious, kept snickering.
"Hehe, sure. We'll find out once we check the answers. Yunsung, read them out."
"Alright, here we go."
Yunsung began reading the question numbers and their corresponding answers.
"Number one is three. Number two is five. Number three is one."
Every single one matched the answers I had chosen. I drew circles over them.
As expected, all correct.
Meanwhile, Junyeob was getting excited.
"Oh! I got two right! The God of Guessing is definitely with me!"
He glanced over at my exam sheet.
"Hey, how many did you get? Wait, you got all three right?"
"Yeah."
He let out a low groan before speaking.
"Hmm... you got pretty lucky too. But we've only just started. Yunsung, keep going."
"Yeah. Number four is four, five is four, six is four."
Once again, all of mine were correct.
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
As I drew the circles, Junyeob grumbled beside me.
"Wait, is this right? How can the answer be four three times in a row?"
"Yeah, it's right. My answers were all four too."
"Ah... I should've just guessed all fours."
Then he turned to me.
"Ji Hyunwoo, what about you? How many did you get?"
"All of them."
"What?"
He craned his neck in surprise, so I tilted my paper so he could see it clearly.
"No way, it's true..."
After groaning in disbelief, he urged Yunsung again.
"Yunsung, next."
"Number seven is one, eight is two, nine is three."
I got them all right this time too.
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
As I drew the circles, Yunsung noticed and spoke up.
"Whoa, you got them all right again?"
"Huh? Again? Nine in a row?"
"Yeah."
Just then, a message popped up in front of me.
You have acquired Karma! +4
Oh, is it from Yunsung?
Right on cue, Yunsung spoke to Junyeob in admiration.
Junyeob could only groan in response.
"Hey, I think the God of Guessing possessed Hyunwoo instead of you."
"No way... Ugh..."
But there was one thing I needed to correct.
"I didn't guess. I solved them."
"Huh? Seriously?"
"Seriously."
But Junyeob chimed in again.
"Dude, you actually believe that? He's just lucky."
However, Yunsung shook his head.
"Hmm... seeing how he solved that super hard problem on the board last time, maybe he really did solve them?"
"Didn't he just memorize the answer key for that?"
"I don't think so. His method was different from the solution book, even though the answer was correct. Besides, even previewing that material is impressive. I couldn't understand it even after looking at the answer key."
Faced with Yunsung's defense, Junyeob shut his mouth.
"..."
Instead, I urged Yunsung.
"Yunsung. Keep reading."
"Yeah. Number ten is one, eleven is five, twelve is..."
And so it went, all correct up to number sixteen.
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
Watching this, Yunsung gasped in awe.
"Wow... insane. You haven't missed a single one yet."
Junyeob asked me, completely bewildered.
"You really solved them?"
"I told you I did."
"Ugh..."
You have acquired Karma! +3
You have acquired Karma! +3
"Alright, now the last four questions. Seventeen is three, eighteen is four, nineteen is five, twenty is one."
But this time, three of mine didn't match.
Questions eighteen, nineteen, and twenty.
Seeing this, both of them spoke at the same time.
"Ah, you finally got one wrong."
"You got them wrong in a row."
But.
"No, the ones I chose are the correct answers."
Strictly speaking, what Yunsung had just read wasn't the actual answer key.
It was merely the answers chosen by the top student.
And as it happened, questions eighteen, nineteen, and twenty were significantly harder than the rest.
It makes sense that he got them wrong.
Still, Junyeob couldn't believe my confidence.
"Whoa, where is this confidence coming from? Obviously, Ildong's answers are the right ones."
"No, I'm right on these."
Because the calculations were complex, I had even double-checked my work.
It had taken extra time, so there was no way I was wrong.
If I got these wrong, I might as well throw away my doctorate.
Indeed.
"What are your answers then?"
"Two, three, and four."
When I answered, Yunsung checked his own exam sheet.
"Huh? I guessed two and three for nineteen and twenty."
"You guessed?"
"Yeah. They were too hard, I couldn't solve them. I ran out of time, too."
Meanwhile, Junyeob checked his sheet as well.
"Two, three, four? Oh! I guessed two and three for eighteen and nineteen!"
Then he turned to me.
"Are you sure? About these answers."
"Yeah. I solved them and double-checked."
"Oh!"
He suddenly clasped his hands together.
"Please! I don't care if it's the God of Guessing or real math skills, please let Ji Hyunwoo's answers be right!"
"My answers?"
"Yeah. That way, I get them right too. Hehe."
He patted my shoulder with a grin.
What a quick turnaround.
You have acquired Karma! +6
You have acquired Karma! +6
The midterm exams continued over the next three days.
Korean, English, and math went exactly as expected.
There were no real difficulties.
Since I did well on these three core subjects, I was already halfway to success.
And Physics I and Physics II as well.
These weren't difficult either.
After all, there was a limit to how hard high school-level physics questions could get.
Korean History was also more manageable than I thought.
It was probably because I had invested the most time into it. Studying it from scratch had been tough, but it definitely paid off during the exam.
Many of the questions matched the practice problems I had prepared, leaving me with plenty of time.
The real issue lay in the minor subjects.
Physical Education, Music, Technology & Home Economics, and so on.
Tsk, it was so awkward to study for those.
I had spent most of my limited time studying Korean History.
I simply didn't have the time to look over these minor subjects.
I don't even know why I chose Arabic back then.
Still, I couldn't leave them completely blank, so I did study a bit.
Or rather, I skimmed through the textbook.
But I wasn't a machine; I couldn't memorize everything after looking at it just once.
As a result, I struggled quite a bit during the test.
I probably got a lot of them wrong.
At any rate, the three days of exams finally came to an end.
And a few days later.
Word spread that the midterm results were out.
"I heard they're handing them out in the other classes."
"What about our homeroom teacher?"
"He should be here soon."
"Oh my god, already? I'm so screwed."
Meanwhile, Junyeob slipped over to ask.
"Hey, hey. What rank do you think you'll get?"
"Who knows."
"From what I saw, you got almost everything right. Won't you at least be in the top ten of our class?"
"Probably. I should at least make it that far."
When I replied nonchalantly, Junyeob tilted his head.
"Tsk, you don't seem very excited."
"Just because. I bombed a few subjects."
"Like what?"
"Arabic."
"Ah..."
Seriously.
I had no choice but to guess on Arabic.
Even for me, it was impossible.
Sigh.
Just then, Yunsung approached us again.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Oh, we're guessing our ranks since the results are coming out."
"Ah, right. Junyeob, what are you going to do?"
"About what?"
"Hyunwoo got a good score this time. He's definitely not going to be last. Doesn't that make you the new last place?"
"Ugh..."
Right at that moment.
Slide.
The door slid open, and our homeroom teacher walked in.
"Alright, I'm sure you've all heard. The midterm results just came out. I'll hand out the report cards, so come up when I call your name."
Standing at the podium, the teacher began calling the students one by one.
The students went up, received their small report cards, and returned to their seats.
"Kim Ildong."
"Yes."
"Seol Sohyun."
"Yes."
"Jang Junyeob."
"Yes."
...
Eventually, my name was called.
"Ji Hyunwoo."
"Yes."
I walked to the front to receive my report card.
Let's see...
As long as I didn't make any bubbling mistakes, my overall grades shouldn't be too bad.
"Here."
I took the report card.
I checked it immediately on my way back to my desk.
And the result was...
Oh?