[CONTENTID1]

014

Quid?

[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

As I walked into the classroom, I noticed a strange sight. Hakyeon, as usual, was early, sitting at his desk. Yet, the color seemed to be draining from his face by the second, and his eyes appeared glazed over.

My thoughts drifted back to our conversation on the roof from the previous day. Ah. Rankings must've been posted, and judging by the expression on his face, he hadn't made the top. Curious, I walked over to the wall where a forboding paper was pasted to the wall. As I scanned through the names, I made a mental note of who I was looking for. Hakyeon, Jungkook, and myself. Mostly out of curiosity.

Strangely, Hakyeon's name was not at the top – he hadn't even made it to the top three. He was fifth, which still wasn't bad, but... it would explain why he was so upset. Jungkook was ranked eleventh in the class, which was surprising considering he hadn't transferred too long ago. And I was fifteenth. Average, as my mother would've said.

She had always said that average would get me nowhere in this world. I needed to excel, be the best at whatever I was doing. That's why she had gotten so angry in the car that one day, her mind filled with the frightening thought that I was becoming complacent, and that I wouldn't go anywhere in life.

I let out a small sigh as I turned to walk back to my seat. It wasn't as if I hated school, but I just wasn't great at it. My mother had always prioritized my singing over my academics, so I had always missed classes to go to competitions, lost out on study time in favor of practicing. And at the time, I was happy. At least I was doing what I loved, back then. Still, I felt a sharp pang of regret for not preparing for what could happen in the future. Clearly, I hadn't thought that my situation was something I would need to worry about, but it happened.

Now, I wasn't too sure what I would do.

As I sat back down, I took out my communication notebook as well as the one I would need for my next class, math. I was going to try to comfort Hakyeon, but it seemed that the others had beaten me to it, swarming around him like a pack of vultures. There wouldn't be any way for me to break through, nor would there be any reason. If he was happy with it, he could swim in the false comfort of fake friends falsely consoling him, spewing lie after lie about how he deserved a higher ranking.

Instead of actually going over, I observed the people around his desk. Three out of the four who had beaten him were there, two of which had barely-concealed smiles lingering on their faces.

"You know, you're really smart. Don't let a number get you so upset, Yeon-ah," one of them said in a voice that was irritatingly loud. Shouldn't they know that not everyone wants them to expose their problems? Why are they bothering a person who's already upset? I heard a small sniffle come from the desk, and it was probably Hakyeon's, by the sound of it.

A small thought came to my mind, maybe he liked all the attention. Sure, his parents would be upset once he got home, but perhaps the sheer number of people who seemed to care was comforting to him. It would make sense, considering how often he tried to be the center of attention.

Though... something about the suppressed sniffles said otherwise. He seemed genuinely upset, and the amount of people really couldn't be helping with that. I let out another sigh, beginning to feel bad for him.

Then... Jungkook walked into the room with an odd expression, his hands gripping the straps of his backpack tightly. He eyed Hakyeon as he passed by his desk, but didn't offer any words of advice, only silence