Park Ji-hoon vs Kim Tae-oh.
Park Ji-hoon vs Kim Tae-oh.
Maybe because it was the first question, not many got eliminated.
Amidst this, Park Ji-hoon up front kept glancing back—must've been wary of Kim Tae-oh.
Once the few who got it wrong were weeded out, the next question came quickly.
-One of mathematics' greatest achievements is the discovery of zero, born from Buddhism's concept of emptiness (空). It integrated zero into the operational structure of numbers not as a mere symbol, but as a dignified number in its own right.
So, which country was the first to begin using the number zero in mathematics?
It really was an exam for the whole student body, so I could see why there was no unified theme. No matter how basic the common-knowledge questions, the younger you were, the bigger the disadvantage.
I wrote down 'India' and held it up, and a mass of first- and second-year runts got eliminated.
'Tch... I'm screwed then...'
Four hundred people remained, and we could earn 10 points this time. Quite a few third-years got the 10 points.
-This is a shrine housing the spirit tablets of successive kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty, where grand ancestral rites are still held to this day. Constructed as a sacred hall to enshrine the spirit tablets and hold memorial services, it is known for being the single largest wooden structure of its era in the world, characterized by its long horizontal form. Also called the 'Parthenon of Asia,' where is it?
My mind went completely blank for a moment. I'd never learned this stuff...
So I just wrote down the longest building from the Joseon era I could think of.
'Jongmyo'
No matter how I looked at it, it had to be Jongmyo...
In the end, the answer was indeed Jongmyo, and more people survived than I thought. Though every single first- and second-year was wiped out, of course.
Then Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon got up, staring each other down.
Da-yeon was absolutely grinding through the problems right in front of me.
And then the next question started, and the second I heard it, I dropped my pen.
-Starting in the mid-17th century, Russia, as part of its southward expansion policy, kept advancing towards the Amur River region, leading to unending conflict with the Qing Dynasty.
This treaty served as the turning point that adjusted the relations between the two countries.
It is a border demarcation treaty concluded between Qing and Russia in 1689, and for the Qing Dynasty, it was the first treaty signed on equal footing with a European power. What is this treaty?
I thought about it for three seconds, then realized.
'Yeah, fuck it, I ain't doing this. This shit's ridiculous, the questions are bullshit.'
If I'd read it even once, I might've gotten it, but world history was something only kids prepping for high school would've bothered reading. In the end, I raised the white flag, but Da-yeon got it right. The answer was 'Treaty of Nerchinsk.'
Da-yeon looked completely shocked that I got it wrong, so I patted her on the head.
"It's something I've never seen once in my life... I'll cheer for you, hang in there!"
"Okay!!!"
I headed back to our class section and started cheering, shoving Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon's shoulders from behind.
"You two not cheering?"
"".....""
I called the class president over and whispered that we should cheer for Da-yeon, the only one from our class still standing. The class president stepped forward and started leading the cheers.
""Lee Da-yeon!!!!""
Clap! Clap! Clap!
""Hang in there!!!!""
Clap! Clap! Clap!
You'd think Da-yeon would've been embarrassed, but she doesn't show it and actually loves this shit. Shooting me a beaming grin, Da-yeon solved the problem. In the end, Da-yeon stopped at 2nd place. The moment she came back to our section, everyone was busy showering her with compliments, and we also got to snag 15 bonus cheering points.
The inter-class soccer tournament that kicked off in the afternoon was worth the most points—if we racked up all wins, we could get 900 victory points today. But... my eyes were glued to the goal points.
A hundred points per goal to the scorer's class... And since the first-years especially were getting a lot of game time...
Da-yeon, who saw me grinning beside her, gave me a wary look.
"Si-yoon, what's up with you?"
"Tae-oh, is he good at soccer?"
"Yeah! He practically flew across the field."
"Uhuhuhuhut. Gift me a 5-star hotel travel voucher... Ahak."
"...?"
Just as I predicted, the game started flowing exactly that way. The second Ji-hoon snatched the ball and burst out from the start, Kim Tae-oh burst out alongside him. Park Ji-hoon, as if suddenly seized by showmanship, shook off two players with a phantom dribble, then after a Marseille turn, planted a mid-range cannon.
Boom!
The soccer ball, fired at a speed unimaginable for the leg strength of a 14-year-old first-year middle schooler, found the net 15 seconds into the game.
"".....""
Park Ji-hoon scored like something straight out of that old Shaolin Soccer movie. The field went dead silent, and the slaughter began.
Have you ever seen 32 goals scored in a single game? Even for youth soccer, 32 goals in a place packed with pretty damn skilled kids... Even I was flabbergasted watching it.
"Ahahak, yah, did we just scarf down 3,200 points for free?"
Add 300 victory points on top of that, and that's 3,500 points pulled in from a single game, and since they were first-years who could play two more games... the teachers started freaking the hell out. As if to demonstrate the very definition of broken balance, Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon caught fire and naturally began competing to see who could score more. These two, practically playing Shaolin Soccer, had quite literally become one with the ball.
When they scored 28 goals in the next game, the teachers realized how serious this was. Everyone was thrown into confusion at the sight of them averaging 30 goals per game. I grabbed some drinks and walked over to Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh while they were resting.
"Quit the showmanship and try a little cooperation. Let's rake in 50,000 points and just trade 'em for one and a half million bottles of water."
The guys in my class, having heard my casual masterplan, started looking utterly horrified.
"Aren't you curious? With one and a half million bottles, we could probably cover the field in bottled water instead of grass."
"".....""
I went back to my seat and ate pizza with Da-yeon.
"As expected... pizza is Domino."
But the teachers, apparently having zero intention of playing along with my plan, slashed the goal points down to the 50-point range. Even if we protested, it was obvious no one but our class was gonna make a fuss, so they simply ignored us and tried to change the rules. I, however, headed straight to the auditorium where the principal was without a second thought.
"Are rules normally this easy to change on the fly?"
The principal seemed to know who I was and greeted me warmly.
"No, they aren't, but don't you think the point gap is a little too big...?"
"So you don't think it's natural for us to be pissed off if the teachers just decide among themselves, without consultation, what to do with points that were earned through that much effort?"
"".....""
"Do you know what we're talking about among ourselves right now?"
The teachers were all listening to me.
"We're saying, let's earn 25,000 points and trade them all in for water just like that. You wanna try hauling 750,000 bottles of water?"
Of course, that was just my own idea.
""...Huh?""
"We won't trade them for water, so how about you revert the points to the original scheme? Let our classmates each get something they wanna do. Otherwise, well, no hard feelings, but we'll just cash out for water I guess."
The teachers sank into serious contemplation, and my debate with them continued. When I came back to Da-yeon, she looked at me.
"What'd you talk about?"
"Huh? We're keeping the soccer scoring as is."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Instead, they're taking the class presidents with them to propose a new rewards menu."
"Aha!"
The next day, the word 'luxury' was clearly what defined our class. Our class put on a flex, not eating cafeteria food and ordering everything in. Everyone got a 1-day cushion pass, sat on cushions, filled five iceboxes to the brim with ice, and buried drinks in them.
"Now this is it~"
I put on the sunglasses I'd brought from home. They were my dad's, so the lenses covered over half my face.
"Ah, yeeeah~"
Da-yeon was looking at me, and Ji-hoon had caught on to what line I was doing.
"Fuckin' A, high-end stuff really is nice~ this black-ass shit, I can't see a goddamn thing~"
"".....""
At the suddenly obscene expletive coming from behind, Kim Tae-oh also turned to stare at me. Da-yeon looked at me with worried eyes and stuck the straw of a fresh-fruit juice filled with ice into my mouth. Without moving a muscle, I sipped the juice Da-yeon was holding up for me while staring up at the ceiling. Watching this scene, Tae-oh threw a remark my way.
"Do you... really see Da-yeon as a friend?"
"Don't just try to twist everything into something ugly. Think about how the person doing something for me feels, would you? Da-yeon just put it in my mouth herself."
Da-yeon, beside me, looked at Tae-oh and nodded.
"Don't try to instigate shit, Kim Tae-oh."
"Okay..."
Da-yeon and I fed each other like crazy.
"Ah, it's so comfortable not wearing a skirt~"
Ji-hoon, who had been watching me, spoke up.
"Bullshit? You spread your legs wide open even when you wear a skirt."
"...?"
"Ah, my bad..."
Our class switched the plan from going on a trip to using the points extravagantly, burning through the massive point total rapidly. So many points at our leisure that the moment anyone wanted to eat something, they could order it on the spot. Everyone was grateful to Tae-oh and Ji-hoon. Except for that runt Kang Hoon who got beaten up by Ji-hoon before...
"The melon looks so good..."
At Da-yeon's remark, thirty plates of appetizingly sliced melon were delivered. Lounging in the shade with a hot breeze blowing, my sunglasses on, in such luxury, I felt like a Taoist immortal. I took off the sunglasses and put them in their case. Then I slipped them into the bag Da-yeon always carries around and said,
"I snuck these out without my dad knowing, so if I get caught or lose 'em, he'll beat me to a fucking pulp, got it? Please~"
"Okay..."
The final day of the middle school field day dawned, and I let out a sigh looking at the line in front of me. I was, at that moment... handling face-painting paints. To either side of me was the art teacher and a bunch of artsy upperclassman kids, but the line in front of me was absurdly long.
And it was all boys, too.
We'd taken pictures of all the designs we could do and placed them out front, but the sign I'd put up with the teacher said anything was possible. At a kid's request to make him look like a cat, I quickly sketched with a pencil on the paper in front of me. The method was to draw the desired design on an A4 sheet with a face outline printed on it, then paint it right onto their face. I wiggled my finger at him.
"Come closer."
"Okay."
The runts were getting all flustered on their own at my touch, but I drew each individual fur and turned him into a real cat.
""Whoa...""
My pace was even faster than the kid next to me who was daintily painting a bunny on someone's cheek. The next person was Da-yeon.
"I'll make it really pretty."
"Okay!!"
I began putting everything I had into painting pink blossoms onto Da-yeon's face, and the teacher beside me couldn't hide their astonishment. With brushwork that even most professionals couldn't match, Da-yeon giggled because it tickled, but I moved my brush with every little tremble.
"Done~"
Da-yeon checked her face in a mirror and then covered her mouth with her hands.
"It's so pretty!!!"
"That's because you're pretty, Da-yeon."
"Yeah!"
When Kim Tae-oh tried to trail after Da-yeon, I crooked my finger at him, and Da-yeon grabbed Tae-oh's arm and dragged him right in front of me.
"Tae-oh, you get one too!"
"...I..."
Tae-oh glanced around, then pointed at a star.
"A star... please..."
Kim Tae-oh probably imagined a small, cute little star...
I grinned, and painted an entire night sky across Kim Tae-oh's whole face.
"Puhahak."
A brilliant, intensely striking night sky like Van Gogh's The Starry Night was plastered onto Kim Tae-oh's face, and Da-yeon, unable to hold back her laughter, turned her head away. Both the teacher and the kids marveled at my artistic skill, but look at that overwhelming night sky...
Kim Tae-oh caught on and tried to dodge, but I'd already spread the paint over a wide area, so he sighed and waited. The painting itself was overwhelmingly beautiful, the stars of the night sky shining through the blue darkness...
If only it weren't plastered all over a person's face, that is.
"Don't wipe that off until Da-yeon wipes her face off, got it? If you're the only one with face paint on, Da-yeon will be embarrassed."
"You!!! Haa... Fine."
Park Ji-hoon started sneering at Kim Tae-oh.
"Ahak, what the hell's up with your face? Crazy, you got a goddamn night sky slapped on your mug. When a shooting star falls, I'mma make a wish, kek."
Right after that, when I signaled for Park Ji-hoon to come here, his expression stiffened.
"Nope."
"Come."
"I said no."
"I said come here?"
"...No..."
"One... two..."
Before I knew it, Park Ji-hoon's entire face held a perfect orange sunset over the sea, framed by pink clouds. Even Kim Tae-oh couldn't hold it in and snickered. Looking at the two of them standing there like that, I laughed so hard my hands shook and I could barely paint. For the first time in a while, I'd made two pieces I was genuinely satisfied with.
Da-yeon snapped a photo.
I paused for a moment and went over to get in the picture with them.
The final soccer championship approached, and you couldn't say my paintings had no effect on the match. Against the third-years, Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon overwhelmed the kids who couldn't concentrate because they kept laughing at the two strikers' faces. One of the opposing boys was even the kid I'd painted as a cat, so Ji-hoon laughed and lost the ball once too.
Ending with the talent show performances by the kids representing our class, the field day drew to a close.