There Are No Secrets
The results of the first midterm exams came out quickly.
Nearly several dozen students had clustered tightly around the bulletin board not far inside the main gate, where the rankings had been posted in large, unmistakable letters.
"I can't see a thing…."
The problem, if you could call it that, was that I couldn't make out where I'd placed. Private Acacia Academy, where the average height easily cleared 160 centimeters, made the sparse few of us in the 150s feel as though the crowd itself were a wall of lamentation.
I had been standing on tiptoe for some time, straining and fretting, when Su-ryeon lightly pressed a hand to my shoulder.
"You don't have to humiliate yourself trying to look. We'll tell you, so just wait patiently like Miss Chae-rin."
"Ah—yes."
At that, I went over to stand quietly beside Chae-rin, who was likewise too short to see anything. Unlike me, she seemed largely unconcerned with the results; she covered her mouth and yawned softly.
She was a commoner like me, so she ought to have been sensitive about her grades. That she could look so unbothered struck me as strange.
"Aren't you curious how you did, Miss Chae-rin? You look quite at ease."
"As if. I was so curious I didn't sleep a wink last night."
"…Excuse me? Not a wink?"
Chae-rin answered with a nod, then yawned long and deep again. Looking closer, I could see a faint darkness under her eyes that almost resembled dark circles. Only then did I realize she had been putting on a deliberate show of calm.
Of course. She was in the same position as I was—if anything, she would have fretted more, never less. No matter how capable you were, an exam wasn't only about your own performance; everyone else's scores mattered too.
Still, she must have done better than I had. It was Miss Chae-rin, after all.
Who was I to worry about whom? I let out a small sigh and waited for the others to report the results.
And after some time—
"…Tsk."
"Miss Su-ryeon?"
I looked up, puzzled by the click of her tongue. Su-ryeon spoke as if she had never been frowning at all, brushing it off as nothing.
"No, I just saw something that put me in a foul mood."
"Pardon?"
"Miss Hong Su-ryeon. Getting upset over someone else's grades? When a person you studied with achieves good results, the proper thing is to be happy for them, isn't it?"
Having said that, Yoon Seo-a turned her head toward me.
"Fifth place out of seventy-five. That is my result for this first midterm, Miss Ha-eun."
"Wow…."
Fifth out of seventy-five. Put that way, it didn't sound earth-shattering—but achieving it at Private Acacia Academy meant something entirely different.
The lower ranks shifted often enough, honestly, with people like me in the mix. But inside the top ten, where the A-Class caliber gathered, rankings almost never moved. At most they shuffled within the same class; almost no one ever climbed in from outside.
Yet Yoon Seo-a had done exactly that, for all to see. As if her declaration on the first day of school—that she would rise to A-Class—had never been empty boasting.
However much I disliked her, I couldn't belittle her ability. When I looked at her with genuine admiration, she produced a fan from somewhere, snapped it open, and preened to her heart's content.
"I told you, didn't I? I am not the sort of talent that belongs in D-Class."
"That's incredible, Miss Seo-a."
I praised her with pure admiration, and Su-ryeon shot me a look that said she thoroughly disapproved.
Sorry, Su-ryeon. But if I brush this off coldly, Seo-a will definitely complain that I hurt her feelings.
"Ah—ah… I'm fortieth…."
So-hye, who had straightened from her usual hunched posture to check the board, murmured the words. With her posture corrected, she was taller than anyone else here by a decisive margin, so reading the results had been no trouble at all.
"Fortieth. You really never were D-Class material, Miss So-hye."
"Ah, hehe…."
At Su-ryeon's praise, So-hye grinned helplessly, at a complete loss. Of course, her placing fortieth wasn't particularly surprising. We had all known from the earlier placement tests that her ability far exceeded her class.
I followed Su-ryeon's lead and offered my own congratulations, then watched her shrink back down as if she had never stood straight, and shook my head. If only she could fix that shyness, she would improve even further. Thinking that, I turned to Su-ryeon.
"What about you, Miss Su-ryeon? What place?"
"Hmm… I came out ordinary. Twenty-seventh."
"Twenty-seventh…."
High enough, but if you limited it to B-Class alone, it was a precarious rank—the kind of line where a slip could let someone from below overtake you.
"Miss Chae-rin is twentieth."
At Su-ryeon's words, Chae-rin clenched a small fist and cheered silently. Twentieth was comfortably upper-tier even within B-Class, and with a little luck it could brush the threshold of A-Class. No wonder she was pleased.
Now only I was left. I watched Su-ryeon's eyes with a tense face as her gaze, which had been directed upward, slowly descended.
Please don't go too far down. While I was thinking that, Su-ryeon's mouth finally opened.
"Miss Ha-eun is…"
Gulp. My throat bobbed of its own accord from the nerves. Part of me wanted her to just say it already; another part wished she would never say it at all. No matter how kindly you spun it, I hadn't done well on the exam.
If only time would stop right here. But as if to mock the thought, Su-ryeon spoke at once.
"Fifty-eighth."
"Fifty-eighth means…"
"Just barely clinging to D-Class."
Before I could even start calculating, Yoon Seo-a tossed it out in an indifferent tone.
"Congratulations, Miss Ha-eun. You scraped through this exam well enough."
"Ah…."
Only then did the tension leave me. I let out the breath I'd been holding and sank down onto the ground—possible only because the people around me formed a wall. With my face buried against my knees in relief, I felt a hand stroking my back.
That gentleness… it had to be Su-ryeon. Sure enough, her voice came.
"Congratulations. All that studying paid off."
"Miss Su-ryeon… thank you."
"Anyone listening would think Miss Hong Su-ryeon was the only one who helped you study."
I lifted my head to thank her, and Yoon Seo-a made no effort to hide her wounded feelings. I shook my head rapidly and answered at once.
"I'm grateful to you too, Miss Seo-a. And to Miss Chae-rin and Miss So-hye."
"I don't care for empty bows."
"What do you mean? We're friends, aren't we?"
"Th-that's right…!"
Yoon Seo-a huffed and pretended to sulk, while Chae-rin answered evenly. So-hye, as always, stammered her support.
She only ever gives me a hard time. Even as I thought it, I got to my feet and set about soothing Seo-a's mood.
"I'm not just saying it. I really mean it. The method you taught me… it let me solve a few more problems."
That so-called associative memory technique—which had felt like a flimsy pretext for sexual harassment—had genuinely helped me crack a few of the questions I'd been tearing my hair out over. Of course, recalling those words also brought back the excitement and the sensations that went with them, so my body had suddenly heated up in the middle of the exam and left me in a rather awkward state. But it had helped; that much was true.
When I whispered as much in a small voice, Yoon Seo-a smiled sweetly, as if she had never been sulking at all.
"Shall I help you next time as well, then?"
"…I'll pass on that."
Next time, let me study in a normal way. While I was thinking that, Su-ryeon, who was still looking at the results board, spoke up.
"The first-year valedictorian is someone named Cha Yeon-hwa."
"Ah, I've heard of her. She was first on the entrance exam too, wasn't she?"
"Is that so?"
"She gave the new students' address as well."
Had she? At Yoon Seo-a's words I scratched my head. Honestly, after the student council president's welcoming speech I had been half-checked-out, so I didn't remember much. Su-ryeon, who had been dozing from the chairman's address onward, wore a similarly uncertain expression.
Paying them no mind, Yoon Seo-a glanced over the results and continued.
"From the second year on, student council officers hold the top and second places straight through."
"You can tell that just from the names?"
"Of course I can. I have every person of note among the upperclassmen memorized."
"Why would you do something like that…."
Su-ryeon muttered in disbelief, but I had heard this story once before. Come to think of it, she had claimed she'd ruined her entrance exam by memorizing the roster. It seemed that had been true.
And Senior Seo-hee was a third-year, wasn't she? The thought struck me, and I tugged at Su-ryeon's sleeve.
"Miss Su-ryeon. Could you check whether Senior Seo-hee's name is among the third-years?"
"The person you call Senior Seo-hee… you mean the student council vice president?"
"Yes."
"Miss Ha-eun. You were on a first-name basis with the student council vice president?"
Yoon Seo-a asked with a look of genuine surprise. I laughed awkwardly.
"We're not actually that close. We ran into each other by chance before the entrance ceremony, and Senior Seo-hee seemed to take a liking to me, so she allowed me to use her name. Though after that we've only crossed paths a handful of times…."
"Hmm. Is that so."
Yoon Seo-a tapped her folded fan lightly against her cheek, as if turning something over in her mind. Meanwhile Su-ryeon finished checking the board and nodded.
"As expected, I suppose—the vice president is first as well. First out of seventy-two."
"She's the designated next student council president, so of course she is."
"Eh—isn't the student council president chosen by election?"
At my question, Yoon Seo-a snorted.
"An election? Well, there is that sort of formality, but barring some serious disqualification, the vice president becoming the next president is a given. The votes mostly go that way too."
"Then the election doesn't really…?"
"Still, there are always people who challenge the prevailing current. For instance, someone from the same student council who happens to be second in their year."
As she spoke, Yoon Seo-a shifted her gaze slightly.
"The fourth-year valedictorian is the student council president as well."
Kang Ha-rin, that had been the name. I still couldn't forget the way she had held the entire assembly in the palm of her hand at the entrance ceremony. Of course—only someone like that could serve as student council president of Private Acacia.
"By the way, Miss Ha-eun—are you interested in the student council?"
"The student council…?"
I had been quietly impressed when Yoon Seo-a suddenly asked. The student council. I had never really given it much thought. An ordinary student had little reason to get involved, and getting in took more than good grades alone.
I shook my head at once.
"No. Honestly, I'm not particularly interested."
"Is that so."
"Why bring up the student council all of a sudden?"
"I was invited. To join when the next student council is formed."
"What?!"
I wasn't the only one startled; everyone around us stared at Yoon Seo-a with wide eyes. But only for a moment. Considering her background and her grades, it wasn't all that surprising.
If anything, it felt like the inevitable had arrived. Thinking that, the others nodded and offered their own remarks.
"It's Miss Yoon Seo-a, after all. Nothing strange about it."
"Still—they usually don't recruit from the first year. That part is a little surprising."
"Well. Everyone simply recognized my ability."
As Yoon Seo-a began to preen under the praise, I let out a small laugh.
The next student council, though. By her own account, the next president would be the current vice president—Senior Seo-hee.
Somehow, being on a first-name basis with her made the distance feel even greater than if we weren't.
Well. Ending up on those terms with someone who was the student council vice president had been pure chance to begin with. It probably didn't matter.
That was what I thought.
"Miss Ha-eun, would you like to join the student council?"
"…Bweh?"
At Senior Seo-hee's words, I spat out the tea I had been holding in my mouth.