Park Ji-hoon vs Kim Tae-oh.
Park Ji-hoon vs Kim Tae-oh.
Shhhhhk, shhhhhk.
A sound that anyone could recognize as someone drawing from behind filled the quiet classroom.
The teacher proctoring the exam slowly approached me.
As expected, the teacher had assumed I'd given up, but flinched at the fully answered written-response questions on my answer sheet.
"Si-yoon...?"
The teacher smiled awkwardly when I looked up.
"Everyone's taking the exam, could we keep it just a little quieter...?"
I casually pulled the sketchbook out from under my desk and placed the paper on top.
Anyone could call it cheating, but I had already handed in my exam sheet to the teacher.
The sound of the pencil grew noticeably quieter.
Shhhhk..... shhhhk.....
Still, the sound wasn't a problem, filling the silent classroom where you could even hear people breathing.
The exam ended, and I stretched.
"Ah~ I'm beat..."
"What are you tired about... you're unbelievable..."
Park Ji-hoon's gaze dropped downward, and his mouth slowly began to open.
And then Tae-oh and Da-yeon, having confirmed Ji-hoon's reaction, looked at my drawing and also gaped.
The test paper that captured the classroom exactly as it was from my view...
The quality was high enough that you could tell whose head was whose from the back,
but especially the rendering of the light entering the classroom looked peaceful.
And in contrast, there were the kids solving problems more fiercely than anyone else.
It even looked dynamic.
"Whoa... insane..."
Da-yeon nodded in agreement at Park Ji-hoon's words.
Kim Tae-oh also gaped.
I held out my hand to Park Ji-hoon.
"Hand it over."
"....."
I snatched the exam sheet from Park Ji-hoon, who didn't want to give it up, and quickly graded it.
Quite a few wrong answers were visible, but still, for Park Ji-hoon, it was clear he had struggled considerably.
Of course, what came out of my mouth was different.
"Ugh, you idiot, how do you get this wrong?"
I graded Da-yeon's exam sheet, which she held out with a confident expression unlike the one for the Korean test, and it was all correct.
"Oooh~ Da-yeo~n~"
"Waah! Si-yoo~n~"
Kim Tae-oh, who had likely never seen Da-yeon in such good condition before, made a slightly surprised expression.
Da-yeon, conscious of Kim Tae-oh's gaze, tried to force an indifferent expression.
"Da-yeon is smart, as expected."
"Yeah..."
When I reached out to Kim Tae-oh, he flinched but then handed it over more readily than I expected.
And on the problem sheet, written in, one hundred points.
"".....""
Kim Tae-oh made eye contact with Park Ji-hoon and then smirked.
Seeing that look, Park Ji-hoon cracked his neck and said,
"For all that, did you actually study for social studies?"
"More than you."
Before I knew it, Kim Tae-oh had moved his seat away from me, and in front, the two of them began solving problems like wildfire.
Like with the other exams, I cleared social studies in 3 minutes and 30 seconds, then rested my chin on my hand and stared straight ahead.
Again, the teacher approached, checked the essay questions, and walked away.
It seemed the teachers at Hanguk Jungang Middle School didn't talk to each other.
'They could at least eat together or something and pass the word along... it's annoying as hell.'
I lay my head down and began to sleep, and the sound of my breathing spread through the classroom.
Then Park Ji-hoon woke me up. The exam seemed to have ended before I knew it.
Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon held out their exam papers in front of me.
"You're both fucking idiots, so what are you so confident about?"
"".....""
With the two of them suddenly at a sharp loss for words, I took the exam papers and graded them.
Knowing they were competitive, I deliberately added up all the scores and wrote them down.
When Kim Tae-oh's score came out to 75, he stiffened.
However, Park Ji-hoon's score was 74, and Park Ji-hoon, who had been mocking Kim Tae-oh, was struck dumb.
Proud of beating Park Ji-hoon, Kim Tae-oh nodded as if it were only natural, though he was hiding his emotions.
Seeing that, Park Ji-hoon's rage meter shot up.
"A man's subject is science..."
"As a citizen of the Republic of Korea... shouldn't one know history?"
Seeing Park Ji-hoon genuinely fired up over a single point, he really did seem to be 14, as expected.
In the end, by average, Park Ji-hoon won.
Surprised by the truly unexpected result, I lightly tapped Park Ji-hoon's shoulder.
"You worked hard."
"Right?"
Receiving my praise, Park Ji-hoon pointed a finger at Kim Tae-oh.
"Acting all refined and your brain's still junk. Heh, aah~ score feels good."
"....."
I looked at Park Ji-hoon, whose shoulders seemed to be touching the ceiling.
"There's an old saying, 'master of both pen and sword'... That's me."
I stared at Park Ji-hoon, who was chattering excitedly, with a pitying look.
'That little shit is worse than me at both fighting and studying, but all he does is run his mouth...'
But Kim Tae-oh began to ignore Park Ji-hoon.
"Aack? You're going to study? With that brain?!"
If I were dumber than Park Ji-hoon...
If I had lost to Park Ji-hoon in exam scores and heard those words...
I would have, without hesitation, delivered a good smack to his skull, which seemed to be running low on space, to help reduce his brain cell count.
As Park Ji-hoon kept being annoying next to her, Da-yeon spoke up.
"If you're dumb, why don't you just sit down and study?"
Kim Tae-oh, witnessing Da-yeon's considerably aggressive tone for the first time, was shocked.
"Hey, this is a pride battle between men, you know?"
"What are you talking about, Si-yoon~? The idiot's saying stupid things."
I smiled as I walked over to Da-yeon.
"She's right~"
"Isn't she~?"
"Yeah."
If there was something Kim Tae-oh didn't know well, it was that Da-yeon and Ji-hoon were quite close.
Because Park Ji-hoon, too, had often looked after Da-yeon since they were young, more than one might think.
I used to hate him for being ugly and stupid, but...
Now, even though I hate to admit it, Park Ji-hoon has gotten quite handsome, with a total delinquent face and looks that would suit tattoos.
Of course, next to me, Da-yeon, and Tae-oh, he looks like a dried squid.
Now he's just a less ugly and less stupid Ji-hoon.
Park Ji-hoon looked at Kim Tae-oh, who was reading a book next to me, and said,
"Wow... if the average difference is 2.4 points, with 12 subjects, that means I got 12 more questions right?"
I looked at Park Ji-hoon and said,
"You have a 61.4 average, and those words come out of your mouth?"
"".....Pfft.""
From a distance, one of the kids let out a laugh.
But the kids flinched under Park Ji-hoon's palpable glare.
Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon's exam papers were a sight to behold; except for the main subjects, everything was scraping the bottom.
Park Ji-hoon looked at me and said,
"Ah, but still, it's different from having a 5 in the tens place."
At that moment, Tae-oh closed his book.
"I've reached my limit. Let's stop."
"What is? What~? Finally realizing your limit is 50 points~? Yeah, yeah, knowing your own capacity is important too~."
Perhaps seeing Tae-oh's expression that serious for the first time, Da-yeon flinched.
I noticed Da-yeon's reaction and threw an eraser at Kim Tae-oh.
Thwack.
"Sit next to Da-yeon."
"....."
Kim Tae-oh looked at Da-yeon and sat down,
and Park Ji-hoon, next to me, giggled at Kim Tae-oh.
I grabbed Park Ji-hoon's chin.
"Da-yeon is right here... you little shit... if you're going to fight with fists, you already know what's up...?"
"Yep."
Seeing Park Ji-hoon's body, which was always pumped up these days,
it seemed he was working pretty hard after seeing Kim Tae-oh at the snack bar last time.
Kim Tae-oh silently opened his book, and Da-yeon was cautiously gauging his mood.
I muttered as I watched them.
"Is it right for the protectee to worry about the bodyguard...?"
Kim Tae-oh flinched, nodded to himself, and then said to Da-yeon,
"Sorry for making you worry."
"Ah... it's nothing."
"As I said at the beginning, I won't get angry without your permission."
Da-yeon smiled at that.
"Ah~ Tae-oh should act however he feels~"
"...Got it."
As if he had been waiting for Da-yeon to say that, Kim Tae-oh stood up and walked over to where Park Ji-hoon was.
The atmosphere of our entire class, who knew the rumors about the two of them, instantly turned icy.
Kim Tae-oh said to Park Ji-hoon,
"Is there a place where you train?"
"It's called Jeil MMA, about a 10-minute walk?"
"I'll come find you two days after the sports festival ends."
Having said what he needed to, Kim Tae-oh went and sat back down next to Da-yeon.
I saw the popcorn-worthy situation taking shape with the exact date set, and my eyes sparkled.
Time passed, and before we knew it, the sports festival was underway.
I put Ji-hoon and Tae-oh in the relay, but I didn't participate in the girls' relay myself.
Park Ji-hoon protested to me, saying he felt betrayed.
It was probably a feeling Park Ji-hoon experienced all the time, but he was protesting anew as if it were the first time.
I put Tae-oh and Ji-hoon in the relay, but since they were on the same team, there was no way to check each other's speed.
Instead, they handed stopwatches to me and Da-yeon, asking us to press start the moment they grabbed the baton.
Ji-hoon's running speed was completely different from what I remembered.
I thought Tae-oh would win decisively, but the times Da-yeon and I measured were different.
For me, Ji-hoon was about 0.1 seconds faster, and for Da-yeon, Tae-oh was about 0.2 seconds faster.
It was a negligible difference between the two of them, but in the context of the race, they were over half a lap ahead of the second-place class.
"Huh?"
In today's relay, where four people run half a lap each, we came to know that a difference of over half a lap was possible.
Our class kids, who placed first in the combined scores for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years, cheered.
The higher the score you had, the more food you could exchange it for.
- 1 : Water.
- 4 : Canned drink.
- 8 : Bottled drink.
. . . . . .
All menu items were one per class member.
For placing first in the relay, we received 5 participation points and an additional '20 points for 1st place' in the competition among the four classes.
5 cheering points.
And we earned an additional 150 points for '1st place in overall competition time', bringing us to a total of 180 points.
I looked at the menu boards for the booths each class was running.
"Oh... a bingsu party is possible for 40 points?"
"That sounds good..."
"With our current points, we can order a bottle of cola, get tteokbokki, blood sausage, fish cakes, gimbap, and finish with bingsu. Haa... we could eat that and go home."
"...Huh?"
"If we repeat it tomorrow, it'd be perfect."
A sports festival with quite entertaining rules.
As I was reading down to the bottom of the menu, I suddenly smirked at the items jumping from 3,000 points to 7,000 points.
10,000 : Class bonding — front-row stadium seats.
20,000 : Class bonding — Jeju cruise.
50,000 : Class bonding — overseas trip with a five-star hotel.
200,000 : Class bonding — space trip.
I looked at the events for the sports festival.
A sports festival spanning three days.
I quickly calculated and spoke to Da-yeon.
"Huh? Space travel is out of the question, but where would the overseas trip be?"
".....I think those were put in as a joke..."
After calculating, I found that even if we got first place in everything, 50,000 points was hard.
But, if Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh were around... since there are individual scores too, the points needed for a 5-star hotel overseas trip weren't a dream.
However, rather than using 50,000 points for an overseas trip,
I thought it would be more hilarious to see them hand out 50,000 bottles of water each to 30 people, a total of 1.5 million bottles, with those 50,000 points.
I was also curious who would count 1.5 million bottles, and how they'd distribute them to us.
As I suddenly got motivated, Da-yeon caught on and tried to stop me.
"...Si-yoon, you're not thinking something weird...?"
"Huh? What thought?"
"You, looking at your face... it seems like you're itching to cause some mischief..."
"Nah~"
Da-yeon knew me way too well.
The girls' dodgeball team match began.
Da-yeon and I applied sunscreen on each other's faces, arms, and legs, and then went outside together.
There were quite a few kids seeing me for the first time, and many pointed fingers at Da-yeon and me.
The game started.
As I sat in one corner of the court watching the girls play around having fun, a kid behind me caught the ball and hit me with it.
As I was about to head to the opponent's out-line, I heard Park Ji-hoon's voice.
"Play properly!!! Some of us ran our asses off!!!"
His voice was really booming.
I had been planning to half-ass it, but then a ball suddenly flew into Da-yeon's face, hit her, and she fell over.
"....."
Da-yeon came over to me smiling brightly, but something boiled up inside my chest.
As I brushed the dirt off Da-yeon's smiling face, I made a resolution.
And from then on, I started lightly crushing the kids.
I caught every ball that came toward Da-yeon, and when I had the ball, the opponents were out in droves.
As I dominated the field alone like Lü Bu, the playground fell silent.
"Whoaaa~~."
In the end, even against the 3rd-years, I won easily and secured first place.
"As expected~ there's nothing Si-yoon can't do!"
"Of course."
Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh were also putting up a good fight, showing them properly what 'domination' meant.
Even though it was still morning time, our score was running at 2,000 points.
A score that was 1,100 points ahead of the 2nd place 3rd-year team.
And the next event was Golden Bell.
'Mwahahahaha.'
In Golden Bell, points were awarded at each stage.
From 500 people it was 10 points, from 100 it was 20 points, from 30 it was 30 points, from 10 it was 40 points, and these points stacked.
Additionally, 3rd place got 300 points, 2nd place 400, and 1st place 500.
Simply put, if someone went all the way to 1st place alone, they'd get 600 points, and 500 for 2nd place.
I looked at Da-yeon, who was receiving private tutoring at home.
They announced the questions would cover random topics, and the entire student body took their assigned seats.
Because students from the same class might cheat, they lined us up in a single row.
Thanks to that, unfamiliar kids around me kept glancing at me.
A question appeared on the large screen in front.
- This 'god' has hair on the front of their head and is bald on the back. It is said that when the god of 'this' comes, if you don't catch them quickly, you will miss them. What is 'this' a god of, that is said to visit everyone three times in their life?
Maybe because scores were on the line, everyone was quite solemn.
I wrote down 'Opportunity'.