Midterm Exams (2)
Roseline grew noticeably busier once the written exam notice went up.
The moment classes ended, she headed straight to the library, and even during breaks she kept a book open. When Chloe and Marien tried to strike up conversation, she often answered in a few clipped words. She clearly had no intention of letting slip the results she could earn—scholarship, professor recommendation, and the achievements she could claim in the Beloa name.
After classes ended, I sat in the annex drawing room, going through the trading company's ledger and the appraiser's schedule. Nothing much there. Beloa had bought itself a moment to breathe, and the key to that moment still rested in my hands.
Then came a knock at the door.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Roseline stepped inside.
"I didn't call for you today."
She closed the door behind her and came further in. Her expression was set—the face of someone who had made up her mind before arriving.
"I have a proposal to make."
I closed the documents over it.
"Hmm. A proposal, is it. Now I'm curious. Go ahead."
Roseline took a brief breath, then spoke.
"The written exams are coming up soon. So until then, I would like you to grant me my freedom in the afternoons."
"Pfft."
Her eyebrow twitched slightly.
"Is something amusing?"
"No, it's just—if anyone overheard, they'd think I've got you locked up."
"Please don't phrase it that way."
"There's another reason you're calling it a proposal, isn't there?"
Roseline didn't look away.
"Until the written exams are over, return my afternoons to me. In exchange, once the exams are done, I will come to you first."
"You'll come first?"
"Yes."
"Even without me calling?"
"Yes."
"Every day?"
I rose from my seat. I didn't step closer. Even that much was enough to make Roseline stiffen.
"Until the written exams are over, I'll let you study as you please. In exchange, when they're done, you come to me first. And?"
Roseline didn't answer.
I tapped the desk lightly with a fingertip.
"So this isn't a proposal. It's a request."
"That's all I have to offer."
"No. I don't think you quite understand what it is you're offering."
Roseline's face stiffened a little.
"You didn't come here to ask for freedom. You came to ask for the chance to prove what you can do outside the hours I permit."
Roseline said nothing.
She was telling the truth about wanting to prepare for the exams, no doubt—but beneath that, I suspected, was the wish to slip out from under my gaze for a little while. The desire to confirm that, within hours where my name and my conditions never touched, there was still something she could accomplish on her own.
Which made me want to give it to her all the more.
Freedom.
Or, to be precise, time she could mistake for freedom.
"Fine."
Roseline lifted her head.
"You're permitting it?"
"I am. Until the written exams end, your afternoons are yours again."
Roseline exhaled a short breath, as if in relief. She immediately smoothed her expression, perhaps displeased with herself for it, but I had already seen.
I slid the calendar across with my fingertip.
"In exchange, I'm adding one condition."
"I already told you. Once the exams are over, I will come to you first."
"That's your condition. Mine is separate."
Roseline didn't answer.
"On the day the written exams end, you'll wear an outfit of my choosing."
Roseline's brow shifted almost imperceptibly.
"The clothes from the trading company meeting?"
"No. Those were far too demure."
"Then what kind of outfit?"
I smiled.
"Secret."
Her expression hardened.
"You won't even tell the person who has to wear it?"
"Nope."
"That's an absurd condition."
"That's what makes it fun."
"Serena."
"Don't worry. It's nothing I'd let you wear outside."
She looked not reassured in the slightest—if anything, her face grew more wary.
"Then where am I supposed to wear it?"
"In front of me."
The room went quiet for a moment.
"On the day the exams end, bring me your results sheet. The outfit will be ready and waiting. And—one question per wrong answer."
"You believe I would accept such terms?"
"Yes."
She answered immediately.
"You want to do well on the written exams. You need the scholarship, the professor's recommendation, good news to send home. If I give you your afternoons back, you won't let that time go to waste."
I smiled at Roseline.
"So in the end, you'll accept."
"I will decide the scope of the questions."
"No."
"Then I cannot accept."
I looked at her for a moment, then laughed.
"If you hate my offer, we can pretend it never happened."
"......"
"Oh, right. You could always just study beside me, couldn't you?"
Roseline's face hardened.
"I would rather not."
"Why? You'd do better with me watching over you."
"That wouldn't be studying at all."
"Because I'd distract you?"
Roseline didn't answer.
"Then you'll have to choose. Study at my side, or accept my conditions."
Roseline was silent for a long while.
It would sound like she had options, but either path led back to me. Even if she took back her afternoons, I would be waiting at the end of them; if she refused, she'd have to study right next to me. There was no choice that let her slip away entirely.
The face she made as she realized it was a good one.
"Repeat the terms, please."
Roseline said quietly.
I laid them out slowly.
"Until the written exams, your afternoons are free. In exchange, on the day they end, you'll come to me wearing an outfit of my choosing and carrying your results sheet. One question per wrong answer."
Roseline's eyes hardened.
"Questions."
"Yes. They might be about the exam. They might not."
"That's far too arbitrary."
"Exactly."
"Serena."
"If you'd rather not answer, you can refuse. In exchange, the other questions will keep coming."
Roseline, who by now knew me rather well, did not feel comforted.
She would have understood at once what that meant. The more answers she got wrong, the more I would ask—and refusing wouldn't reduce the questions. It would only multiply them.
"That's hardly fair."
"And yet you're still going to accept."
I didn't rush her. In moments like these, you wait. Roseline had to think it through herself, run the calculations herself, and answer with her own mouth—so that later, there'd be no room for excuses.
After a long silence, Roseline finally spoke.
"I will refuse any question that crosses the line."
"That much, I'll allow."
"And you will not lay hands on me."
The corner of my mouth lifted.
"I hadn't said a word about that yet."
"I'm saying it in advance."
"Fine. That day, I'll only ask questions. I won't touch you unless you permit it first."
Roseline couldn't answer right away.
"Are those all the conditions?"
"Yes. That's all."
For now.
Only after another long pause did Roseline answer, low.
"I accept."
I didn't bother to hide my satisfaction.
"Wonderful. Then study hard."
Roseline's expression hardened further.
"Please don't say things like that."
"Why not?"
"Because it sounds as though I'm studying with Serena's permission."
"Aren't you?"
Roseline didn't answer.
I stepped aside, clearing her path.
"Go. It's your freedom, isn't it?"
Roseline didn't move right away.
"You're really letting me go just like this?"
"Yes."
"Why."
"Because you came to me first. I liked that."
And because it wasn't as if she wouldn't come again.
I didn't add that last part aloud. Roseline already knew it.
Roseline bowed her head.
"Then I'll take my leave."
As she walked toward the door, I called softly after her back.
"Roseline."
Her footsteps stopped.
"Even one wrong answer, and you still come."
She didn't turn around.
"I'll make sure that doesn't happen."
"Doesn't matter. Even if you get everything right, that doesn't change what you'll be wearing when you come."
Roseline gave no answer, and went out the door.
I looked at the spot where she'd been standing.
Until the written exams, the afternoons were hers. In exchange, on the day they ended, Roseline would come to me in an outfit of my choosing, results sheet in hand. So I could count the number of wrong answers.
She would study hard, I imagined.
To see me less. To reduce the questions she'd owe me. To be less embarrassed in front of me.
A laugh escaped me.
How delightful.
Either way, she'd end up studying with me on her mind.
The door closed behind her.
Roseline stood in the corridor, unable to move for a moment.
She had won her freedom.
Until the written exams ended, her afternoons belonged to her. She could go to the library, split the material with Chloe and Marien, keep her nose in a book late into the night without any fear of being summoned by Serena.
This was, without question, what she had wanted.
And yet somehow, what remained in her hand felt less like freedom and more like a contract with a deadline attached.
The day the exams end.
She goes to Serena, results sheet in hand.
She wears the outfit Serena has chosen.
One question per wrong answer.
Roseline slowly curled and uncurled her fingers.
Serena had said she could refuse any question she didn't want to answer. But she'd also said refused questions would count as wrong answers. Either way, the questions would not decrease. Get one wrong and they multiplied; dodge one and they multiplied again.
So she simply could not afford to get anything wrong.
For the scholarship.
For the professor's recommendation.
Because she had to bring good results home in the Beloa name.
Roseline was thinking this when her steps stopped.
No. That wasn't it.
The real reason wasn't any of those—it was the need to shave down, by even one, the number of questions Serena would get to ask her.
Roseline let out a short breath and looked down the length of the corridor. She had to get to the library. There were still sections she hadn't reviewed, and past exam papers she needed to go through before the day was out.
Move.
Only after arranging her thoughts like that did her feet finally carry her forward.
This was time she'd won to escape Serena—and now even that time had to be spent with Serena looming over it.
She didn't like it. But Roseline walked.
To do well on the exams.
To win the scholarship.
And to reduce Serena's questions by even one.