Chapter 17: Midterm Exam

-Today, we will be learning about the royal tteokbokki (traditional royal dish) of the Joseon Dynasty. First, please look at this screen. (Pointing to the screen) The scene displayed on the screen is the royal table of the Joseon king…

I, who was reading the textbook passage on speech, rubbed my blurry eyes and stood up from my chair.

I looked at the clock and realized that I had been sitting in my chair for two hours since I started studying.

‘Stretch…’

I turned my stiff neck and twisted my waist.

As my body relaxed, the tension suddenly released, and I didn’t want to look at the textbook anymore.

I thought about taking a short break, so I threw myself on the bed and picked up my phone.

And I searched for Yuna on the YouTube search bar.

As soon as I searched, several videos with thumbnails of a woman with outstanding beauty appeared.

The view count of each video is at least 100,000.

If I were an ordinary man, I would have been captivated by the woman’s body, but I examined the woman’s face with an insightful mind.

‘It’s the same person.’

In conclusion, Senior Na Yuna, whom I had previously contacted, is the popular YouTuber Yuna.

At school, she hides her face with long bangs and stays quiet, but on the internet, she shows off her glamorous appearance and hosts broadcasts.

When I saw it as a webtoon, I thought it was strange that no one recognized Na Yuna, but when I saw her in person, the atmosphere was completely different.

‘Unless someone forcibly lifts her bangs at school, no one would recognize her.’

And since it would be fun if people didn’t recognize her, the original author probably introduced this setting on purpose.

‘Then, am I the only one who knows Na Yuna’s true appearance now?’

I once again examined Na Yuna, who was prominently displayed on the thumbnail.

Honestly, it was a voluptuous body that would arouse a man’s instinctive lust.

I waved my hand to dispel the heat rising to my face and sat back in my desk chair.

Studying is the best way to get rid of lust.

Vibration.

A text came from the counseling club group chat.

[Kim Noeul: Senior Yuna, good luck on the exam tomorrow]

[Kim Noeul: And Maru, prepare to wail tomorrow]

It’s a fun provocation.

[Me: Laugh all you want now I memorized the entire speech and composition textbook today]

[Kim Noeul: If memorizing is all it takes to do well, everyone would do well]

[Na Yuna: Good luck to you guys too]

Senior Yuna sent a timid reply.

She usually just watched the two of us talk and only sent a text very occasionally.

From now on, Na Yuna will also become a member of Kim Noeul’s gang(?), so we have a duty to become closer than we are now.

Since there’s a good excuse, I decided to throw out a suggestion.

[Me: Shall we have a get-together as a counseling club after the exam?]

[Kim Noeul: That’s a good idea Senior, are you free?]

[Na Yuna: I always have a lot of time]

It was a reply that felt somewhat lonely.

I realized that the message was Na Yuna’s self-deprecation, but Kim Noeul, a natural insider, misunderstood it as a strong affirmation.

[Kim Noeul: Then let’s hang out somewhere after school and have dinner before parting ways Dinner will be meat?]

[Me: I don’t mind]

[Na Yuna: I’m fine with it too]

The appointment was roughly set.

I put down my phone and focused on the textbook again.

If I want to laugh after the exam, I have to do better than Kim Noeul.

Na Yuna put down her phone with trembling hands and took a deep breath.

It was the first time she had a long conversation with school acquaintances in a group chat.

She looked at the messages again, wondering if she had said anything strange.

‘Is this really real?’

A loser girl who can’t even show her face outside is in the same chat room as the school’s most popular girl and a super handsome guy…

‘Yes, Yuna. This is an opportunity. An opportunity that won’t come again.’

She clasped her hands together and made a resolution, then checked her bank account.

Her account balance was very abundant, unlike that of an ordinary student.

‘I guess this is enough to buy meat for two juniors…?’

Since she is the oldest and is joining between two insiders, she should show this much sincerity so that they won’t secretly curse her.

‘Please let me cover the friend fee with buying meat for a while…’

With a depressed expression, she stood up and took off her glasses.

When she took off her myopia-correcting glasses, her large eyes were revealed.

She went to the bathroom, lifted her bangs, and fixed her hair in a bridge shape, then smiled confidently.

“Let’s do well today, Yuna.”

She slapped her cheeks a couple of times and opened the locked door.

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

She entered the streaming site, sent a notification message to her subscribers, and adjusted the camera correction values.

After finishing the preparations, she started the broadcast.

“Hello everyone~. I turned it on a little early today.”

The broadcast screen showed the appearance of Yuna, who is admired by everyone, not the loser Na Yuna.

‘Yes, this is me.’

A second choice to escape the shackles of the past, that second choice has now become everything in her life.

Even if it’s wrong, she can’t stop now.

The last day of the exam.

The subjects tested today are speech and composition, East Asian history, and calculus.

I smoothly cleared speech and composition and East Asian history.

Since it’s difficult for these two subjects to be tested outside the textbook, it’s not difficult to aim for a perfect score if you’ve memorized the textbook.

But this applies not only to me but also to my competitors.

Especially Kim Noeul.

Her extraordinary head should not be underestimated.

Just as I was surprised by Alice’s mental arithmetic ability when I was young, Kim Noeul has the same potential as Alice.

Didn’t I start studying earlier than them as a reincarnator in order not to be pushed back by those two geniuses?

Perhaps there won’t be much difference between Kim Noeul and me in subjects other than math.

The outcome will be decided in math.

Fortunately, math is the last subject of this midterm exam.

After the East Asian history exam, the students in the class checked their answers with each other.

“Noeul! The Grand Canal is the 3rd order, right?”

“Ah, why did that Yang Je b*stard invade at this time?”

“Was that number 3?”

Kim Noeul kindly answered everyone’s questions and also checked her own answers.

No one objected to Kim Noeul’s words, and even the guys called history buffs agreed with Kim Noeul’s opinion.

“Hmph, Kim Noeul’s answer is the same as our history buff club’s answer. She’s with us at 100 points.”

A female student who is famous for being a nerd and a history buff pushed up her glasses and confirmed Kim Noeul’s perfect score.

Kim Noeul glances at me.

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

…That cocky face makes me a little angry.

Kim Noeul approached me with light steps.

“How were speech and composition and East Asian history?”

“It was easy. I guess they’ll try to differentiate in the finals.”

“Don’t you need to check the answers?”

“Not really.”

“You’re confident.”

“I always got everything right in middle school without checking the answers.”

“…Oh, I see.”

Kim Noeul shrugged and looked strangely at me, who had only a computer sign pen and a mechanical pencil on my desk.

“Aren’t you warming up for math? Like solving some problems.”

“Math is meaningless to do now. I’ll just take it with my usual skills.”

“…….”

Kim Noeul’s gaze turned to her own desk.

She saw the math problem book on her desk.

When I also turned my gaze there, Kim Noeul subtly blocked my view and changed the subject.

“I hope you do well. I thought of a pretty great wish.”

“Yeah~. Go and solve math problems~.”

She gritted her lips and returned to her seat with staggering steps.

Finally, the math exam came.

The proctor was surprisingly Ms. Chae Yubin.

It was quite unexpected that she, who is a calculus teacher, was in charge of the calculus exam.

“Everyone put your books away. Just don’t make calculation mistakes. Start marking 10 minutes before.”

She encouraged the students and distributed the answer sheets and exam papers one by one.

As soon as I received the exam paper, I checked for any defects and looked through the problems.

I didn’t look at the other problems carefully.

I looked at the long-awaited last problem number 20.

It was an essay question, and the composite function was intricately intertwined, so the calculation seemed complicated.

‘Can I solve it in time…’

[The 3rd period exam has started.]

“Okay, start.”

I immediately picked up my mechanical pencil and started solving from number 1.

As I moved my mechanical pencil in a state of trance, I had completely finished the 19th essay question.

I took a moment to catch my breath and looked at the clock, and there were 10 minutes left.

‘First, let’s mark…’

I marked 19 answers and looked at number 20.

And I doubted my two eyes.

‘Am I taking a mock exam now?’

I didn’t know when I was checking for defects because I just glanced at it, but when I saw the type of problem, it was close to number 30 of the mock exam.

It’s a problem that identifies how many intersection points the graph of a transcendental function and a straight line form.

However, the number of intersection points must be expressed as a new function according to the change in the slope of the straight line.

Of course, I can solve it if I solve it calmly.

But the problem is that it takes me quite a while to solve such problems.

In fact, it took me about 20 minutes to solve number 30 of the 3rd mock exam math, so I was burdened by such a problem.

‘Let’s solve it first.’

I identified the function and roughly drew the shape.

And when I drew a few linear functions, I saw a point where the number of tangent points changed.

‘Okay, first, since it’s an essay question, let’s write the solution process first.’

I wrote the solution process in neat handwriting.

Now all that’s left is the calculation.

I glanced at the clock and saw that about 4 minutes were left.

These days, killer problems take a long time to come up with, but the calculation is quick.

But there was a problem.

Since only 0 and natural numbers can be marked on the answer sheet, the correct answer must also be a natural number.

So the answer to number 20 must be a natural number, but a f*cking fraction keeps popping up.

‘Crazy, why is this happening.’

My hands are trembling.

I checked the solution process again, but I can’t find any errors.

Usually, such errors are only discovered after the exam is over.

‘D*mn it. I can’t lose to Kim Noeul…!’

I try to recalculate somehow, but it’s not enough.

[The exam has ended.]

“Everyone put down your pens! Let’s collect the answer sheets from the back!”

Ms. Chae Yubin shouted, and I dropped my arms and bowed my head.

I was tired from maintaining a state of full concentration, but I felt self-loathing because I couldn’t completely solve number 20.

‘With this skill, how can I beat that girl from Ojakgyo…’

I sighed deeply and kept holding the exam paper and tried to solve it again even after the exam was over.

But what really drives people crazy is that when I solve it again, the answer comes out neatly as a natural number.

I found out that the problem asked for h(8), not h(3).

‘Ah, printing!’

I crumpled the exam paper due to my cursed vision issue.

When I harassed the exam paper like a crazy person, the surrounding students distanced themselves.

I looked at Kim Noeul with powerless eyes.

She was expressionless.

I can’t tell if she did well or not.

I was curious and was about to go to Kim Noeul, but just then, the homeroom teacher came in.

“I’ll finish homeroom quickly, so everyone sit down.”

I listened to the teacher’s homeroom in a daze.

I’m just curious about Kim Noeul’s math score right now.

“Ah, and the objective scores for the subjects taken today are out, so everyone check them.”

After homeroom, the students roared with a sense of liberation that the exam was over.

Most of the students ran out of the classroom as if they didn’t want to be in school anymore.

And the students who studied hard gathered at the bulletin board at the back of the classroom to check their objective scores.

I also got closer to them, and I could hear them murmuring.

“Wow, Kim Noeul got all of speech and composition and East Asian history right.”

“Kim Maru is crazy. He got everything right?”

I raised my head at someone’s words.

Certainly, I got all of speech and composition and East Asian history, which have no essay questions, and math objective questions right.

‘If only I had solved math number 20, I would have gotten 300 points today…’

In this case, I can only hope that there are many partial points for the essay question.

I checked Kim Noeul’s reaction.

She was looking at the math objective score sheet with her mouth wide open.

It was somehow different from the confident expression she had before the exam.

‘Why is she like that.’

Curious, I looked at Kim Noeul’s objective score sheet, and one problem was marked with an X.

It means it’s wrong.

‘Huh?’

I rubbed my eyes and looked again, and Kim Noeul got a 5-point objective question wrong.

The friends who were with Kim Noeul made a fuss.

“No, Kim Noeul, this b*tch only got one wrong!”

“She said she didn’t study, she’s a deceiver.”

“This girl went to the PC room with me every day, so why am I?”

But unlike her friends’ compliments, Kim Noeul’s expression was like that of a national hero who lost her country.

Kim Noeul got one objective question wrong, and I didn’t write the answer to the essay question.

Since I’m confirmed for partial points, there’s no way I’ll be deducted more than 5 points.

I approached Kim Noeul and tapped her shoulder.

Of course, I covered my rising lips with one hand.

“Noeul, you worked hard.”

“What is this… I made a mistake…?”

“Getting one wrong is good. Chin up, girl.”

“It’s unbelievable. I solved number 20. There’s probably no one else in the whole school who solved it…”

“Mistakes are also skills.”

“…….”

“Seeing this, I realize how amazing Faker is, who doesn’t make big mistakes and doesn’t miss the top spot…”

It was spring.