Ch.52Tutoring a Peer (9)

I breezed through the second period math exam.

During the first period Korean exam, I had put up a serious fight to maintain my dignity as a native citizen, but how could I possibly withstand the Western barbarians armed with their latest weapons of numbers and symbols?

Except for questions 1-4, which could be solved with middle school-level math skills, the second half of the second period was like kicking off a soccer match with the goal wide open and no goalkeeper in sight.

My subjective answer sheet left my hands without leaving any trace besides my student ID and name, as if even checking the ink in my pen wasn’t worth the effort.

“I’m hungry.”

From the moment I submitted my answer sheet, any mindset about fulfilling my duty as a student had long disappeared.

Even now, I wasn’t lamenting my failure but simply blurting out that I was hungry.

*Growl*

As if my biological clock was responding first, my body sent signals of hunger.

“Mr. Mop Master, what’s on the cafeteria menu today?”

“It’s to die for, seriously.”

According to Mr. Mop Instructor, the side dishes are supposedly delicious enough to die for.

*Slurp*

However, the unfortunate reality is that even though Bulsa High School, where Ban Doyoung attends, has a relatively free atmosphere, it is still an academic high school with the goal of sending students to university.

Naturally, all welfare policies at school were prioritized for third-year high school students who were on the verge of college entrance.

There were small visible rewards like snack support or free supplementary lectures, but on a larger scale, examples included arranging classrooms on the second floor where there was less traffic and easier movement, or installing bidets only in the third-year bathrooms located on the second floor alongside the faculty restrooms.

Even now, some students who left class under the pretext of using the bathroom would go down to the second floor where the third-year classrooms were, rather than using the first-year bathrooms.

Despite the full arrival of spring, the weather was still chilly in the mornings and evenings, making us flinch from the subtle coldness felt when sitting on the toilet.

Just thinking about placing my bare bottom on a toilet seat without a warmer in the middle of winter made my legs tremble already.

But that wasn’t all.

The student council prioritizing third-years when snacks were available, all four third-year bathrooms having bidets with seat warming functions—these were merely material supports.

True welfare and benefits are those applied so naturally, like breathing, that one doesn’t even consider them as benefits.

So naturally and pervasively. Those enjoying these precious gifts didn’t realize how significant the welfare and benefits they received due to this difference in perception were.

Perhaps they would never know. To them, it wasn’t about priority welfare or consideration, but their rightful entitlement and common sense.

Huh? Why am I suddenly talking about this, you ask?

‘Why does that senior get to go in first when we were in line before them?’

‘Well, third-year seniors need to eat quickly and get back to studying! Don’t you know the cafeteria order is third years, second years, then first years?’

‘Then damn it, come earlier! What were you doing until now, cutting in line during first-year lunch time?’

‘Listen, kid, third years eat before first years. That’s just common sense at this school!’

Bulsa High School’s cafeteria couldn’t accommodate the entire school at once. Like most school cafeterias, space constraints meant they had to quickly cycle students through rather than accommodating everyone simultaneously.

Therefore, although the official lunch time started at 12:30, first-year students could only enter the cafeteria at 12:50—twenty minutes after lunch began. Any line formed before that would be completely kicked out, like being removed from a raid party.

“Ah… I’m so hungry. I barely ate breakfast before coming to school.”

Even after the lunch bell rang, first-year students couldn’t even approach the cafeteria for over twenty minutes, forced to sit in their classrooms clutching their hungry stomachs.

Even the school store, an alternative option, wasn’t easily accessible. The store was located on the first floor of the new building.

Naturally, third-years with their base on the second floor had priority over first-years who had to come down at least four flights of stairs from their fourth-floor classrooms.

New menu items or popular products often disappeared as soon as the fourth period ended.

So what happened then? What do you think happened?

With a hungry stomach, I’d end up drinking mango-flavored cola instead of the Zero Lime that Do Hamin failed to buy, then eat cold rice before heading to fifth period.

First-years just didn’t have… priority!

“Wow, the math difficulty was no joke. Weren’t there topics we haven’t even learned yet?”

“Class president, can you help me with math problem number 12?”

“Again?”

“Sorry, I was just confused whether the answer was 2 or 4.”

“Well… I don’t mind. Let me see your test paper.”

Although the lunch bell had rung, some students who hadn’t made plans for the afternoon gathered around class president Ahn Seonggyeong to compare answers, just as they had after the Korean exam.

The subject had changed, but in this Class 1, the most reliable answer key was still Seonggyeong’s test paper.

“President, president. Did you solve the last problem, number 30? Do you know that answer too?”

“…Ah, no. I couldn’t solve that one either.”

“What? Even you don’t know?”

Ahn Seonggyeong, who had been smoothly explaining problems to the students, sighed briefly before calmly showing the last page of her test paper.

Among the subjective problems that served as the final challenge of the math exam, there were traces of desperate attempts to find the answer, with numbers and formulas written until the gray test paper turned black, but the parentheses where the answer should have been remained blank.

“If I had just five more minutes, I could have solved it… Well, next time.”

“This mock exam must have been really difficult if even our class’s top student couldn’t solve it.”

“…Ah, Do Hamin.”

Staring blankly at the empty answer sheet, Seonggyeong suddenly mentioned Do Hamin’s name. Whether it was intentional or unconscious, I couldn’t tell.

“Do Hajin…? The kid that Ban Doyoung always bullies?”

“It’s Hamin, not Hajin. Do Hamin.”

“Oh, was it? I’ve never talked to him before. But why bring him up?”

Clearly, Do Hamin’s presence in the class wasn’t very strong yet. Even after almost a month since enrollment, some students still confused his name.

Despite major incidents happening in class and having the world’s most beautiful girl as his desk mate sitting right next to him, this level of social invisibility was truly characteristic of Do Hamin.

“Do Hamin might have solved it…”

Seonggyeong’s sudden shout-out to Do Hamin was unexpected. She took her test paper and approached Do Hamin’s seat with the students gathered around her.

“Do Hamin.”

“…Huh? W-why, what’s up?”

Do Hamin, as always, stammered and looked flustered. He clearly hadn’t expected the class president and other students to crowd around him.

“Did you solve math problem number 30?”

“Number 30…? Ah…”

“If you solved it, could I ask what the answer was? I’m not sure if my answer is correct.”

Do Hamin thought deeply for a moment, hesitating before answering.

“S-sorry. I couldn’t solve it either.”

He showed the last page of his test paper containing problem 30. The test paper was filled with thick, messy handwriting to the point where no white space remained, making the surrounding students grimace at the sight.

“Wow, look how black the test paper is. Were you doodling?”

“Do Hajin, your handwriting is terrible.”

“Haha… yeah, I think so too. Sorry, I couldn’t solve it despite all this, so I just wrote something random and moved on.”

“…I see. That’s unfortunate. Then no one in our class has it.”

Seonggyeong quietly nodded and returned to her seat without further comment.

“How crude.”

“W-what? When did you get here?”

“Just now.”

After Seonggyeong returned to her seat, I sat down at Do Hamin’s empty desk.

Looking down, I could see his messy test paper solutions.

Crooked and crude formulas and notes pressed hard with a computer marker pen were visible. It was such terrible handwriting that I wondered if even the writer himself could read it.

However, to my eyes, which had been observing his terrible handwriting up close all along, I could clearly see a number that he had confidently written as the answer within that black cloud of ink.

“Why didn’t you tell them?”

“W-what…?”

“You solved this whole back page. This is the correct answer, right?”

I pointed to a single character in the black swirl that appeared to be the last thing he had written in the parentheses.

Judging by how he had blacked out a number in the parentheses with a marker pen, it seemed like he had hurriedly changed his answer at the last minute.

“Isn’t today the perfect opportunity for someone like you to get noticed? There are still plenty of kids in class who mix up your name.”

“I just… didn’t want to be embarrassed if it turned out to be wrong. So I pretended not to know. I wasn’t very confident anyway.”

“Hmm…”

“You’re the one who told me not to teach others so carelessly…”

“Excuse me, what did you just say?”

“Nothing… it’s nothing.”

Uneasy eye contact, turning his head away from me with a blushing face, and uncertain pronunciation. Judging by his reactions, it was clear that Do Hamin was hiding something from me.

‘But then again, this guy has always been like this.’

However, Do Hamin had always been a socially awkward kid whose gaze trembled, who blushed easily at the slightest teasing, and who stammered when speaking, so his current behavior wasn’t really different from usual.

“Anyway, that’s the reason. What about you? How do you think you did on the exam?”

“A heroine doesn’t bother with studying.”

“There you go again… The gym owner and the lady are really worried about you. They say you don’t care enough about your studies.”

“But what can I do? It would be terrible if I suddenly discovered a talent for studying, started getting top grades effortlessly, and became perfectly intelligent.”

“W-why would that be terrible? That would just be good.”

“Miss Miso said that if you study hard, your future husband’s face will change.”

“…Huh?”

Do Hamin, who had been burying his face in the test paper he had already completed, raised his head toward me.

“If he becomes more handsome than he is now, it will surely become troublesome in the future.”

“…”

[Announcement: Due to today’s mock exam schedule for first and second-year students, the lunch order has been changed to second years, first years, then third years. First-year students on campus should gather in front of the cafeteria by 40 minutes past the hour.]

“Woohoo, we get to eat early! Hey, model student. I’m hungry, let’s go get some food!”

“O-okay…”

The English and elective subjects I took after lunch also followed math into the distance. It was all Do Hamin’s fault.