episode_0017

Today, let’s take some time to learn about the tteokbokki of the Joseon Dynasty. First, please look at this screen. (Pointing to the screen) The scene displayed on the screen is of the royal table of the Joseon king…

As I was reading the textbook passage on rhetoric, I got up from my chair, rubbing my tired eyes. Glancing at the clock, I realized I had been sitting for two hours studying.

“Stretching…” I turned my stiff neck and twisted my back in different directions. As my body relaxed, suddenly the tension dissipated, and I didn’t feel like looking at the textbook anymore.

Thinking of taking a short break, I threw myself onto the bed and grabbed my phone. Then, I searched for Yuna on YouTube.

As soon as I typed the search, several videos with a stunning woman as the thumbnail appeared. Each video had at least 100,000 views.

If I were an ordinary guy, I might have been captivated by the woman’s figure, but I scrutinized her face with a discerning mindset.

“So, she’s the same person.”

To cut to the chase, the senior Nayeon I had previously contacted is the popular YouTuber, Yuna.

At school, she hides her face behind long bangs and keeps to herself quietly, but on the internet, she flaunts her glamorous appearance while hosting her broadcasts.

When I saw her in the webtoon, I thought it was strange that no one recognized Nayeon, but in reality, the atmosphere was completely different.

“Unless someone forcibly lifts her bangs at school, no one will recognize her.”

And since people not recognizing her will lead to interesting plot developments, the original creator must have intentionally introduced this setup.

“So, am I the only one who knows Yuna’s true appearance now?”

Once again, I carefully examined the prominently featured Yuna in the thumbnail. Frankly, for any guy, her sensual figure would trigger instinctual thoughts.

I brushed off those thoughts and sat back down at my desk. Studying is the best way to dispel such distractions.

Ding!

A message came through the counseling department group chat.

[Kim Noeul: Yuna senior, do well on the test tomorrow]

[Kim Noeul: And Maru, get ready to bark loudly tomorrow]

An amusing provocation.

[Me: Laugh all you want, I’ve memorized the entire rhetoric textbook today]

[Kim Noeul: Just because you’ve memorized it doesn’t mean you’ll do well]

[Yuna: You guys do well too]

Yuna senior timidly replied. She was someone who usually just observed our conversations, occasionally sending a text.

From now on, Yuna would also become part of Kim Noeul’s gang(?) so there was an obligation for us to become closer than we are now.

I had a good excuse at hand, so I decided to propose something.

[Me: How about going out for a meal with the counseling department after the exams?]

[Kim Noeul: Sounds good, Senior, do you have time?]

[Yuna: I’m always available]

Her reply felt somewhat lonely. I realized that the message reflected Yuna’s reluctance, but Kim Noeul, a congenital extrovert, misunderstood it as strong affirmation.

[Kim Noeul: Then let’s spend some time together somewhere after school, have dinner, and part ways. How about meat for dinner?]

[Me: It doesn’t matter]

[Yuna: I’m fine too]

The plan was roughly set. I put my phone down and focused on my textbook again. If I want to smile after the exam, I need to study harder than Kim Noeul.

*

*

*

Yuna took a deep breath and put her trembling hands down, pondering. It was her first time engaging in a lengthy conversation in a group chat with acquaintances from school. Doubting whether she had said anything strange, she reviewed her messages.

“Is this for real?”

To think that the ultimate loner girl, who couldn’t even show her face outside, was in the same chat room as the most popular girl and the hottest guy in school…

“Yeah, Yuna. This is your chance. It won’t come twice.”

She clasped her hands together and made a resolution, then checked her bank account. Her financial situation was unusually abundant for a typical student.

“This should be enough to buy meat for two juniors, right…?”

Being the oldest and sandwiched between two popular kids, she felt she had to show this much courtesy to avoid self-loathing.

“For now, let’s just cover it by buying them meat…”

With a gloomy expression, she stood up and took off her glasses. When she removed her nearsighted glasses, her large pupils were revealed. With her hair fixed in a bridge shape, she went to the bathroom and confidently smiled.

“Let’s do well today too, Yuna.”

She slapped her cheek twice and unlocked the door with a padlock.

Inside the room, broadcasting equipment and soundproof walls were visible, and in the center, three large monitors were waiting for Yuna.

After entering the broadcast site, I sent a notification to subscribers and adjusted the camera settings. With that done, I began the broadcast.

“Hello, everyone~. I started a bit early today.”

On the screen was not the nerdy Yuna, but the admired Yuna, who was admired by everyone.

“Yeah, this is me.”

The alternative I chose to break free from the shackles of the past has now become my entire life. Even if it was a mistake, I can’t stop now.

* * *

The last day of exams.

Today’s subjects are rhetoric and composition, East Asian history, and calculus. Rhetoric and composition and East Asian history were smoothly cleared. If you memorized the textbooks well, aiming for a perfect score in these two subjects isn’t difficult, not just for me, but for my competitors as well.

Especially Kim Noeul.

One must not underestimate her extraordinary intellect. Just as I was amazed by Alice’s mental arithmetic ability when I was young, Kim Noeul possesses a potential on par with Alice’s.

Wasn’t it because I didn’t want to be surpassed by those two geniuses that I started studying earlier as a reincarnator?

Perhaps, except for math, there won’t be much difference between Kim Noeul and me in the other subjects. Victory or defeat hinges on math, which conveniently happens to be the final subject of this midterm exam. After the history exam, students in the class discussed the answers among themselves.

“Noeul! Is the third order correct for the Daewoonha?”

“Why are you interrupting now, Yangje?”

“Was it the third one?”

Kindly, Kim Noeul answered everyone’s questions and affirmed her own answer. No one opposed Kim Noeul’s words, and even the so-called “reverse virtue” students agreed with her opinion.

“Hmph, Kim Noeul’s answer matches ours, the reverse virtue club. She’s getting 100 points with us.”

A female student known for being sarcastic and a reverse virtue confirmed Kim Noeul’s perfect score. Kim Noeul glanced at me.

She half-closed her eyes, lifted the corners of her mouth, and raised her chin slightly.

…I feel irritated when I see that unlucky face.

Kim Noeul approached me with a cheerful step.

“How did rhetoric and history go?”

“It was okay. It seems like they’ll give differential grading at the end of the term.”

“Do you want to compare answers?”

“Not really.”

“You seem quite confident.”

“I never got the answers right in middle school, but I always get them right now.”

“…Oh, I see.”

Kim Noeul shrugged her shoulders and looked at me strangely as I sat at my desk with just a laptop and a sharp pencil on it.

“Aren’t you preparing for math? Why don’t you try solving some problems?”

“Doing math now wouldn’t make much difference. I’ll just rely on my usual skills.”

“……”

Kim Noeul’s gaze shifted to her own desk. I could see a math workbook lying there.

When I turned my gaze in that direction, Kim Noeul subtly blocked my view and changed the subject.

“I hope you do well. I thought your wish was quite remarkable.”

“Sure~. Go solve some math problems~.”

She chewed her lip and returned to her seat with unsteady steps.

The math test was finally approaching. Surprisingly, the supervisor turned out to be Teacher Chae Yubin. It was quite unexpected for her to supervise the calculus exam when she was the calculus teacher herself.

“Put away your books. Don’t make calculation mistakes. Start marking your answers at least 10 minutes before the end.”

Encouraging the students, she distributed the answer sheets and exam papers one by one. As soon as I received the exam paper, I quickly scanned through the questions while conducting a preliminary check.

I didn’t pay much attention to the other questions. I carefully examined the long-awaited final question, number 20.

It was a descriptive question, and the composite function seemed intricately tangled, making the calculations look complicated.

“Can I solve this within the time limit…”

[The third period exam has begun.]

“Alright, begin.”

I immediately picked up my pencil and started working through the problems from number 1.

Engrossed in my work, I unknowingly completed the entire descriptive question 19. Taking a brief breath and glancing at the clock, I had 10 minutes left.

“First, let’s mark the answers…”

I marked the answers for the 19 questions and then looked at question 20. And then, I doubted my own eyes.

“Am I taking a mock test right now?”

When I did the preliminary check, I didn’t notice because I glanced over it, but judging by the question type, this was similar to question 30 on a mock test.

It was a problem about determining how many intersection points are formed by the transcendental function and the graph of a straight line.

However, the number of these intersection points had to be expressed as a new function that varies according to the slope of the straight line.

Of course, I could solve it calmly. But the problem was that it would take me quite a bit of time to solve this kind of problem.

Actually, it took me about 20 minutes to solve even the 30th math problem. I was burdened by such a problem. “Let’s solve it for now.” I grasped the function and roughly sketched the graph. Then, after drawing several linear functions, I noticed a point where the number of tangents changed. “Okay, since it’s a descriptive question, let’s start with the solution process.” I wrote down the solution process neatly. Now, all that’s left is the calculation. Glancing at the clock, I had about 4 minutes left. Lately, killer problems take a while to conceive, but the calculations are quick. But a problem arose. Since I can only mark 0 and natural numbers on the answer sheet, the answer also has to be a natural number. So, the answer for question 20 should be a natural number, but a frustrating fraction keeps popping up. “This is crazy, why is this happening?” My hands trembled. Even after rechecking the solution process, I couldn’t find any errors. Typically, this kind of error is discovered as a rule after the exam is over. “Darn it. I might lose to Kim Noeul…!” I tried to recalculate somehow, but it was futile.

[The exam has ended.]

“Everyone put your pens down! Let’s collect the answer sheets from the back!” When Teacher Chae Yubin shouted, I stretched out my arms and bowed deeply. I was exhausted from maintaining intense focus, and not being able to perfectly solve question 20 made me feel self-doubt. “How am I supposed to beat that girl from Ojakgyo with this level of skill…” I sighed deeply and, even after the exam ended, I clung to the test paper and tried to solve it again. But what really drives a person insane is that when I tried solving it again, the answer came out neatly as a natural number. It turns out, the problem wasn’t asking about h(3), but rather about h(8). “Ah, printing error!” I crumpled the cursed test paper in my sight issue. As I tormented the test paper like a madman, the surrounding students distanced themselves from me. I looked at Kim Noeul with powerless eyes. She remained expressionless. I couldn’t tell if she saw or didn’t see. Curious, I was about to approach Kim Noeul when our homeroom teacher happened to come in. “Finish the closing ceremony quickly and take your seats.”

Even during the closing ceremony, I was half-listening and half-lost. I’m just extremely curious about Kim Noeul’s math score right now.

“Ah, and since today’s multiple-choice test scores are out, everyone should check them.”

After the closing ceremony, students erupted in cheers at the sense of liberation that came with finishing the exam. Most of them dashed out of the classroom as if they couldn’t stand being in school any longer.

Meanwhile, those who had studied diligently gathered at the bulletin board at the back of the classroom to check their multiple-choice scores.

As I approached them, I overheard their murmurs.

“Wow, Kim Noeul got all the answers right for the essay and verbs.”

“Kim Maru is insane. All correct?”

At someone’s remark, I lifted my head. Indeed, I got all the verb and essay questions right, and I aced the math multiple-choice as well.

“If I had just done math question 20, I’d have scored 300 today…”

Under these circumstances, I could only hope for a high score on the essay section. I observed Kim Noeul’s reaction.

She was gaping at the math multiple-choice score sheet. Her expression was different from the confident one she had before the exam.

‘Why is she like that?’

Curious, I looked at Kim Noeul’s multiple-choice sheet and noticed that one question was marked with an X, indicating a wrong answer.

“Huh?”

Rubbing my eyes and looking again, I realized that Kim Noeul had missed a 5-point multiple-choice question. Her friends beside her were making a fuss.

“No way, Kim Noeul only missed one!”

“She said she didn’t study, what a liar.”

“I went to the PC room with her every day, why me?”

However, despite her friends’ praise, Kim Noeul’s expression resembled that of a fallen patriot who had lost her country.

Kim Noeul missed one multiple-choice question, and I couldn’t write the essay answers. With my partial score confirmed, I wouldn’t lose more than 5 points at least.

I approached Kim Noeul and lightly tapped her shoulder, covering my rising smile with one hand.

“Noeul, good job.”

“What… What do you mean… I made a mistake…?”

“If you missed just one, that’s still impressive. Chin up, kid.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I did question 20. There probably isn’t anyone else in the whole school who did it except for me…”

“Mistakes are part of ability.”

“……”

“Seeing this, Faker, who never makes big mistakes and always maintains his position at the top, is truly amazing….”

It was spring.