Midterm Exam (2)
"Jiyu, why are you so drained!"
I came up behind her and looped my arms around her neck. Right up until the other day she'd been nothing but high energy, and now she'd sunk this low... Midterms really were a frightening thing.
"I hate tests..."
The words came out small and wilted. Elementary midterms and finals didn't mean a thing, and yet here she was, this crushed. Were elementary grades actually important these days? Back when I'd gone to school, grades in elementary and middle school had been completely useless. Unless you were gunning for a special-purpose high school, bomb them or ace them, it all came out the same.
It was only from the first year of high school that grades started to matter. That was when you finally learned what managing your GPA even was. Of course, I'd goofed off through high school too, so I'd never managed mine at all—which was why I'd never so much as set foot in one of those so-called prestigious universities.
Still, if I started studying now, even someone as slow as me might scrape the bottom rung of a good school, right? The population was smaller these days, and the competition relatively lighter, so I'd heard getting into university would be easier than it had been back when I was a guy. To put it bluntly, by the time children being born now reached college age, half the universities in the country would supposedly have vanished. There simply wouldn't be enough school-age kids, thanks to the low birth rate. We'd gone from an era of seven hundred thousand births a year down into the two hundred thousands, so it was an entirely plausible claim.
Anyway, I poked and squished at Jiyu's cheeks while getting ready to head in for the exam. Yumi took one look at the two of us and let out a heavy sigh. Does she think I didn't study? I'd still come in first on the quizzes we took along the way...
"Hana! Stop picking on Jiyu!"
Ah. That wasn't what I'd been thinking at all. She must have decided I was tormenting Jiyu. I flinched away from her side, then had no choice but to protest to Yumi that it wasn't like that.
"I was just trying to cheer Jiyu up...!"
"Oh yeah? Then you'd better leave her alone. Jiyu gets prickly the second exam season hits!"
So that was something I hadn't known about her. From behind, she had the classic cartoon look—a thundercloud dumping rain over her head. I took Yumi's hand, and there was nothing for it but to go into the classroom for the midterm. Getting close to Jiyu again felt like more than I wanted to risk.
"All right! Everyone, clear everything off your desks! If anything besides your writing utensils is up there, you're disqualified!"
At the teacher's words the kids bustled into motion, and I was one of them, stuffing the book that had been on my desk into my bag. I'd been reading right up to the last second, so I was brimming with confidence.
"Hands on your heads! I'll pass out the tests!"
The teacher handed a paper to each student, one by one. I flicked my tongue, already imagining the taste of the exam. I wanted to know which questions would get my blood up.
"Hands down, and the moment the bell rings at exactly nine, the test begins~"
With nothing to do in the five minutes before nine, I closed my eyes and tried to meditate. One sidelong glance at Jiyu and Yumi, though, and their attitudes couldn't have been more different. Jiyu had gone pale, as if something were hunting her, while Yumi looked exactly as she always did.
Riiing—
The class bell rang, and I turned my paper over. It was Korean, so there were reading passages, which explained why the packet was so thick. Even so, it wasn't much of a challenge. Perhaps in consideration of the fact that we were still elementary schoolers, the exam lasted only an hour, and there weren't many questions.
I sailed through Korean. None of those nasty grammar items showed up, the kind you can't crack with ordinary common sense unless you've memorized them. It was mostly literature and nonfiction—questions you could answer just by reading the passage, no studying required.
Maybe that was why I finished with a full thirty minutes to spare. Done with the questions, I decided on a nap. I'd slept badly the night before, and I was tired.
"Waaah!"
Jiyu had her face planted on the desk, putting on a great show of crying. The exam was over, and she looked crushed. Yumi was coaxing her through it.
"It's okay, Jiyu... An elementary school test isn't everything."
For comfort, it sounded awfully grown-up. I stretched long and said,
"Still, we're going home soon, so it's fine!"
It was true that exam days meant an early dismissal, and I loved that fact. I'd done well on the test, and I got to go home early? Nothing could beat it. Jiyu heard me, pushed herself upright, and said,
"When I get home, I'm gonna watch anime!"
Jiyu was an anime person, same as me. She'd told me she didn't watch Little Magician Rumi, though, so I was in the middle of luring her into it. She wasn't taking the bait. She'd called the anime I watched childish!
Childish, of all things! It was an anime overflowing with love and justice. Once she learned the famous lines hidden inside it, and the true meaning underneath, Jiyu wouldn't be able to help falling for it. She just couldn't see that buried meaning yet, and so she'd lost interest.
We were still talking when the teacher came in.
"Did you all do well on the test, kids?"
"Yes~"
"No!!!"
The voices tangled together. The ones who'd done well answered yes with smiling faces; the ones who'd bombed it said no. To my ear, it split about even.
After that the teacher ran through a few quick announcements and stepped outside. At last, time to go home! I slung on my bag and tried to shoot out the door in first place, but the other kids were already far quicker and nimbler than I was.
"Wah!"
Before I could even get out, half the class had drained away like an ebbing tide. And since I had to leave with Jiyu and Yumi, I couldn't pour out with them like that.
"Hana, let's go!"
Maybe she was simply in no hurry; Yumi took her time getting ready to leave. Jiyu and I, bags already on our shoulders, stared holes into her until she laughed and put her own bag on.
"Taking it slow is nice too!"
She wasn't wrong. Rush, and you might slam into the other kids and get hurt. Look at the subway and places like it—everyone scrambling to go faster, and then a catastrophe like a crush. Didn't that happen all the time?
Anyway, once we stepped out of the classroom there were plenty of kids in the same boat as us. The whole school had sat the exam, and the sight of them spilling out of every classroom at once was something to behold.
Maybe because it was over, they were all coming out smiling. The ones who'd done poorly had already fled to the PC bangs or gone off to play; they simply weren't in the hallway.
"Hmm..."
I was checking my phone. These days they didn't hand out answer keys. They posted them on the school bulletin board instead. That must have been why nobody was comparing answers with their friends—the hall was full of kids just waiting to see when the key would go up.
"Hana, did the test go well?"
Maru had come to pick her up. Hana smiled and waved the test paper.
"Yeah! I think I did great!"
She looked so pleased that she really did seem to have done well. Could Hana be a genius? She'd grown up in nothing like the other children's world, and yet the speed at which she adapted to society was practically that of a local. It was enough to astonish Maru.
She'd had the thought hundreds of times. She's never experienced Korean culture, so why does she seem so Korean? But Hana was, without question, the being she was, and there was no telling where she'd learned any of it. Maru could only guess she'd picked it up through her phone, or from the broadcasts.
Her mind was razor-sharp, and her future was something to look forward to. She was only a third grader, and already bright enough to rank first in the whole school.
"Maru, if I get first place, I definitely get Rumi's transformation outfit set, right?"
"Of course, of course."
She intended to give her the set whether she came in first or not. She'd already bought it and hidden it deep in the office, meaning to spring it on Hana at a surprise party and watch her light up.
But the way Hana was talking, she truly seemed headed for first. She'd only just enrolled—hadn't even been in school for half a year—and she was going to outpace the other children and take the top spot. Maru swelled with pride.
In high spirits, Hana sang along to the lyrics of Rumi's anime.
"Rumi, Rumi, Rumi~"
Her room was already crammed with Rumi merchandise, and even that wasn't enough for her. At the rate she was collecting it, she'd be putting up a separate storehouse before long—the way celebrities turned an entire room into a closet.