Ch.54Doyoung’s Favorite Random Game (1)

I couldn’t reflect a mock exam that doesn’t even count toward school grades as justification to force a student into evening self-study sessions they never signed up for.

Respecting each student’s individual autonomy is certainly important, but ultimately, accommodating students for evening study sessions incurs additional costs.

In the end, money is the most crucial factor.

Dinner for the students. Operating costs for classrooms where students study. Overtime pay for supervising teachers to maintain a conducive learning environment, and so on. Keeping students at school until late at night costs more than one might think.

That’s why I always complained about it at school. Why pay money to attend evening self-study sessions I didn’t even want to do? If I’m paying my own money for these sessions, why is it so difficult to leave just five minutes early?

Back then, the prevailing opinion was that students needed to be made to study by any means necessary, but South Korea’s public education meta, which changes like a storm every year, has been gradually shifting during the decade since I left school.

Thanks to that, I was somehow managing to adapt to this unexpected second round of school life… but who would have thought that the evening self-study sessions from those freedom-deprived days would make a remastered appearance here? And not even as “self-study” but under the name of “special study.”

“It’s okay, Doyoung! I’m sure you can succeed! I’ll work hard to help you improve your scores by the midterm exams!”

I couldn’t bring myself to spit in the face of Ms. Miso, who was smiling with such sincerity. Yes, this teacher was truly filled with the singular purpose of teaching the joy of studying, without any ulterior motives.

“Haha… fuck.”

Of course, the expletive was a separate matter.

…

“Ugh, Korean webtoons suck!”

*THUD*

After morning assembly ended and Ms. Miso disappeared, I slammed my forehead against the desk, channeling the deep despair rising from within.

This must be a dream. When I wake up, it’ll turn out to be all lies.

“So, have you awakened from your dream and returned to reality?”

“No, my forehead just hurts like hell.”

Ah, thinking about it, if this could end so easily, I would have returned to my original world long ago. I lifted my now reddened forehead and let out a bitter sigh.

“Anyway, congratulations on your mandatory evening study sessions, Doyoung.”

“Sob… Damn it! The semiconductor betrayed me!”

“Don’t casually call your dad that. It’s because you’ve been neglecting your studies too much.”

Now I understood who my dad had been talking to on the phone the previous day. There was no reason for him to hold the phone so respectfully with both hands unless it was someone important.

Ms. Miso’s meticulous plan had been laying the groundwork since the moment I returned home.

“So what happens now? Does Doyoung start evening study sessions tomorrow?”

“No, that would be difficult. To stay at school in the evening, you need to sign up for dinner. Even if your home is just five minutes away, you can’t do evening self-study without registering for both the study session and dinner.”

Hyerang was right.

Making students study without feeding them would be cruel, something even schools couldn’t easily do. Though, forcing unwanted study while providing food isn’t exactly humane either.

“The teacher said she’d put you in evening study if you failed to reach the average score on the midterms. So it’ll probably start after the midterm exams.”

“Considering midterms start at the end of April, that gives us about three weeks.”

The grace period given to me was about 20 days. During that time, I needed to somehow improve my grades to reach the midterm average score.

The goal: score above the grade average on the midterms. Reflecting on my memories from school days, it wasn’t a particularly difficult task. However, I really didn’t like the consequences of failure.

The image of spending evenings with that Hamin guy might be suitable for a romance webtoon, but it couldn’t compare to one-on-one kendo lessons at Ban Doyoung’s home dojo.

Having already found an appropriate option for private lessons through the educational resources of this world—my mom and dad—there was no reason to enter evening self-study with Hamin.

“Sigh, did I really do that badly? I thought I tried hard on the Korean language section at least.”

“Come to think of it, it is a bit strange. It’s only been a few days since the mock exam, but they’ve already sent notices to parents about mandatory evening study.”

“…Can I see your test paper?”

At that moment, Hamin, who had been observing the situation, spoke to me. Coincidentally, I had kept yesterday’s mock exam paper under my desk.

“Oh, Hamin. Are you going to grade Doyoung’s paper?”

“Yeah, the answers were posted right after the exam. I’ve already checked what I got wrong.”

The mock exam had been a while ago, but I still kept the test papers in my locker rather than throwing them away immediately. I opened my locker and handed the papers to Hamin.

“Here… my precious baby that I filled out with such care. I leave it in your hands, sensei.”

“D-don’t make weird jokes, just give it to me…”

Hamin slowly checked the answers and graded my test paper.

“Let’s see… Ah, you got question 1 wrong. The answer is 1.”

*Mark*

“Ugh! Right from the start!”

“Hmm. Oh, you marked 4 for question 19. I got confused on that one too and got it wrong. The correct answer is 2.”

*Mark*

“Argh! That wasn’t a guess, I actually worked that one out!”

“Ah… question 43… this is also 2, not 4.”

*Mark*

“Hnngh! Stop… if you keep stabbing like that, I can’t take it anymore…”

“D-don’t make weird noises every time I mark something wrong!”

“Sorry, did that turn you on?”

“That’s not it at all!”

After that, Hamin continued to mercilessly slash through my test paper. It was truly heartbreaking to see all those number 4 answers—which I had marked based on Hamin’s student number—being crossed out as incorrect.

The occasional red circles that appeared were like small embers, stanching the wounds in my injured heart just enough to endure.

“After adding up all the correct answers… huh…?”

“Are you done grading? Let me see, let me see! How many points did Doyoung get to receive Ms. Miso’s shoutout?”

“Huh, this is a bit strange…”

Having finished grading the mock exam, Hamin tilted his head in confusion as he checked the scores.

“What, is it really bad?”

“No… it’s better than I expected.”

“…Huh?”

Surprised by the answer, Sahyang, Hyerang, and I all crowded around the test paper Hamin had finished grading.

“It’s true, Ban Doyoung, you scored over 65 in Korean. Wasn’t the average for mock exams around 50?”

“And about 30 points in Korean History. That’s similar to mine, Doyoung!”

“34 points in English… that’s below average, but considering your final exam scores from middle school, you did pretty well.”

How badly could I have done on the mock exam to be selected by Ms. Miso as the first candidate for mandatory self-study? Contrary to our initial concerns, Ban Doyoung’s first mock exam results were relatively decent.

Well, calling them “decent” might be a bit arrogant, but at least they weren’t bad enough to be singled out for mandatory self-study by Ms. Miso. In fact, there were several students who scored lower than Ban Doyoung.

According to Sahyang and Hyerang, considering Ban Doyoung’s middle school grades, this was a tremendous improvement.

The fact that she scored lower than me—who took the test with a brain that had graduated high school nearly 10 years ago—gave me a pretty good understanding of how little interest Ban Doyoung had in studying.

“What’s going on, Ban Doyoung? I thought you didn’t study at all.”

“Hahaha, could it be that your talent for studying awakened with your high school debut? This is serious—your future husband’s face might be worth looking forward to!”

“…”

“Ah, but math is pretty serious. Single digits… at least it’s not 9 points.”

“That’s what dragged down your overall average. Same as middle school.”

“Ban Doyoung’s future husband’s face has returned to normal.”

However, due to the overwhelming performance of Ban Doyoung—who had been a math dropout even in the original world—the goal of reaching the mock exam average score ultimately failed.

“What a shame. If you’d done a bit better in math, you could have easily been in the middle ranks.”

“W-why do we need math when we have calculators?”

“Doyoung, your English is below average too.”

“W-why do we need English when we have Papago?”

“Why do kendo when you could use a gun?”

“Take that back right now!”

In any case, with Hamin’s help, one thing became clear: the reason I was selected by Ms. Miso as a candidate for mandatory self-study wasn’t simply because I failed the mock exam.

“Definitely…”

Then what could have been the cause? There must have been a direct trigger that made Ms. Miso decide to make me study, something more significant than failing the mock exam.

“Doesn’t it seem too quick that she called the dojo master to recommend evening study? She apparently called right after the exam ended.”

“Maybe the mock exam score was just an excuse, and she’d been planning to make Doyoung study all along?”

“No, what sin have I committed…”

“Ban Doyoung, did you say something weird to Ms. Miso?”

“Something weird…?”

Ah.

…

‘B-Ban Doyoung…? Do you have any specific career aspirations?’

‘I don’t have dreams. I just want to have fun.’

It was a few days before the mock exam, during a personal career counseling session with the homeroom teacher.

As someone possessing Ban Doyoung’s body, I was in the awkward position of having to answer about her future aspirations, and I just wanted to get out of that situation as quickly as possible.

‘I-I understand that you have a vibrant personality and take good care of your friends, which is admirable, but… this is career counseling time, right? Even if you don’t have an immediate dream, I’d like you to tell me briefly what you might want to do in the future…’

‘Hmm…’

‘I-I’m just worried about you. Your grades are falling, and I’m concerned that you might be spending time aimlessly because you don’t know what you like… and what if later on, you find something you want to do, but you can’t pursue it because you didn’t learn how to study for that dream at school… That would be too sad, wouldn’t it?’

‘Don’t worry too much. Once this ends, I’ll go back to my original world, so I don’t need to think about careers or anything.’

‘Huh? What does that mean?’

‘Nothing, nothing at all.’

My vision of Ban Doyoung’s future extended at most to the next week or the week after. After all, this life as Ban Doyoung was just something I was borrowing temporarily.

In such a situation, asking me to imagine Ban Doyoung’s future 10 or 20 years from now? How could I properly envision that? At most, her chest might grow from G to H cup.

‘R-really, there’s nothing at all…? No dreams or other career paths… nothing?’

‘Come on, you don’t need to cry about it, teacher.’

I already knew from several experiences that those teary eyes directed at students weren’t just for show.

If I didn’t say something that resembled a career path, those tears would never let me leave this desk.

‘Sigh… I just need to say anything, right?’

‘Y-yes. Preferably something that Ban Doyoung would be good at!’

‘Then I’ll be a good wife and wise mother.’

‘Ah, I see… Ban Doyoung’s career aspiration is to be a good wife and wise mother… Wait, what did you just-‘

‘A good wife and wise mother.’

‘M-may I ask why?’

‘Because that’s what Ban Doyoung would be best at.’

…

“What is it? Did you remember why Ms. Miso singled you out?”

“Ms. Miso asked what I wanted to be after studying, and I answered ‘a good wife and wise mother.'”

“Geez, you crazy girl. You brought this on yourself.”