Somi thought she had entered hell. With all sorts of problems arising, she sighed and could only force a smile at her supposedly new friends. Mina smiled and handed her a red gummy bear, "Here, try this!"

Yoojung frowned and shoved a green gummy bear in Somi's face, "No, try this!"

Somi forced another sloppy smile at them and took a yellow gummy bear out of the pack, "I think I'll stick with lemon for now."

Mina and Yoojung sighed with disappointment but stopped and started to argue again about which gummy worm flavor was the best. Somi sighed once again and turned around, only to see nothing but a penguin in front of her face. Sohye benignly smiled and shoved the penguin into Somi's arms, "Isn't this penguin nice? This is limited edition, but I'm giving this to you since we're now friends!"

Somi showed a weak smile and gently hugged the penguin in her arms, "Thanks... for the limited edition penguin."

Doyeon came over to sit next to Somi, but blocked her ears and winced as Yeunjung walked around with her loud singing voice. Sejeong and Chungha were talking to each other about art while Nayoung's attention was on the forms she had to fill out. Jieqiong was busy mumbling to herself while Chaeyeon was sipping her strawberry milk, admiring the fresh and nonchalant air. Yeunjung eventually stopped singing so loud and grinned, "Still, I can't believe Somi beat Sejeong at academics! I guess someone outsmarted you this time, Sejeong!"

Sejeong playfully rolled her eyes but showed an eye smile, "Hey, at least I don't have to stress anymore!"

Somi would've thought of that as a lonesome threat. Usually, she isn't the student to compete. She just attends school and does her best but she never aimed to be the top. She wondered of Sejeong if she ever had a grudge but seeing the eye smile, Somi guessed not.

Somi doesn't know how this all started. One moment she was walking to her classroom, the next moment she was stopped by Sejeong, who asked her to join her and the others for lunch. Somi was speechless at that time. She couldn't decide what she wanted to say, the words still caught in . However, she accepted the invitation out of curiosity.

She was not expecting this kind of lunch. Somi sighed and fiddled with the penguin's arms, "Are you guys always like this?"

Doyeon shrugged, "Depends on the situation."

Somi nodded slowly and mumbled in defeat, "I see."

"Well, in most cases, yes." Yeunjung said, adding gestures with her eyebrows.

"Why do you ask, Somi? Is everything okay?" Chaeyeon asked.

Somi's eyes dilated as everyone stopped to look at her, even Stone Nayoung. Somi took time to formulate a legitimate reason that she gasped lightly while shaking the penguin's arms into a gesture of denial. 

"If you think I'm bothered and all, I'm not." Somi said. "It's just that I'm not used to all of this, being an outcast and all..."

"Hmm... that's sad and tough for your part." Nayoung spoke for the first time in a while.

"The President has a point but nonetheless, you have been welcomed by us. There is no reason for you to worry about that right now," Sejeong concluded as she took a humongous bite of her tuna sandwich.

Somi was still new to this. All she could do was just nod and continued playing with the penguin Sohye gave. Besides, what could go wrong?

She couldn't find a reason to prove that something would go wrong, but she was still cautious of her surroundings, especially towards Sejeong. Even though she knew Sejeong first out of the ten girls, she immediately felt Sejeong's intimidating presence. The both of them are meant to fight over for Rank 1, but Sejeong didn't seem to care much about it, instead happy and thankful that Somi had taken Rank 1, which Sejeong defined as torture.

Sejeong smiled and got up, stretching her arms with a lazy yawn, "Wanna hang out at the usual cafe later?"

The others nodded one by one while Somi frowned, "Aren't you guys supposed to be studying at home later on? Instead of hanging out at a cafe?"

Sejeong shrugged, "The cafe rarely has customers at that time. And that's a place where we can study quietly if we wanted to. We think of it as a place that relieves our stress. It's a place that we don't define it as torture or hell."

Yoojung stuffed with gummy worms, "The ten of us always meet there everyday. We use the library as an excuse if we really have to."

Doyeon pointed at Chaeyeon who was smiling innocently, "Even the mature one goes with us."

Somi observed Chaeyeon carefully, "Really?"

Chaeyeon coughed lightly, adding a mutter of 'Yes' in the end, making the rest chuckle lightly, even Somi.

"Anyways..." Doyeon chimed in again, who then pointed at Somi. "... you're joining us later."

Somi would've make an excuse not to but when the sound of the bell lingered around campus, she decided to say nothing. The nine students walked together in a group and talked on their way as they headed back to their classes. Sejeong was the last one until she looked back and saw Somi was still standing there, almost frozen.

Sejeong gestured her to come closer, "Hey. Let's go."

Somi snapped herself back to reality and heard Sejeong. She could only nod and go with her to catch up with the rest of them.

+++

D-11 before the third mock exam

After the end of another discussion and the teacher writing those said words on the blackboard, students of the class 3-A had their own reactions but it was a sign of pure agony. If school was already hell itself, the mock exam was the most crucial sector of hell. 

"Hush!" Teacher Bae slapped her stick on the table to shut everyone up. "You'll get used to this eventually. You've been doing it for the past three weeks so shut your mouths up."

The bell rung again, a sign to an end of another class. The teacher got out and the students in the classroom immediately began to complain how the mock exams were too much for them to handle.

IOI Academy is a school where its first priority is education. Safety meant nothing to the school itself. The teachers wouldn't care if you got into a fight at school. But if violence had made you drift farther away from studying, the school itself would see it as a problem. There would always be mock exams before the real exam comes. A normal exam would have two mock exams, but a really important exam would take four mock exams. This time, the IOI Exam had put stress on the students themselves, their minds are tired and furious everytime someone mentions of a mock exam.

With the exam comes great time for tutors, self-study, and more of that growing exponentially. Students would care nonetheless of sleepless nights and fingers filled with callouses from all the writing. In the said institution, grades meant everything, sometimes risking a student's point of sanity.

"Yah... who took my notes?" Lee Soomin, the 31st placer, spoke.

Everyone sighed and kept doing their own businesses. For Soomin, she was like a deranged man, flipping out as she slammed her locker shut and went to any student she could accuse of.

“Who was it?! Just give me back my notes!!”

They looked at Soomin with a bored look, which made her even angrier and that was the reason why she started to look for all lockers and threw everything on the floor.

“Yah, calm down. You’re so annoying!” Lee Haein, Rank 17, threw her bag on the floor and glared at Soomin. After that she walked out the classroom and some of her friends followed.

Soomin continued to search for the remaining lockers when Park Soyeon started to interrupt her.

“You know what, we don’t care about your freaking notes so please shut your mouth!”

“What did you just say?”

“As if you studied your notes for real.” Soyeon added a snicker. "And being in 31st place isn't even a big deal."

She suddenly approached the 18th placer girl, “Yah. Were you the one who took my notes then?”

Soyeon gave her a smirk but Soomin was provoked, choking the said girl, in which Soyeon paybacked with a clench on Soomin's collar, starting a riot in which Stone Nayoung would stop.

"Yah!" Nayoung slammed her notebook as she went closer and broke the two apart. "As much as we need to find the culprit who would take notes, a fight cannot be tolerated." Nayoung let them go. "Now shut up and go back to your seats."

Soyeon and Soomin hissed at each other and went to sit down. Nayoung sighed and got back to hers, jotting down her own notes.

"Pst." Nayoung looked up and sitting in front of her was Sejeong. "Lunch by the canteen later?" 

"Okay. Invite Somi too." Nayoung said.

Sejeong nodded, showing crescent smiles as she got back to studying. But then, whispers about the ranking system provoked her.

Omo-Jeon Somi ranked down to Section B. Well, she deserved it. The ranking system was uplifted because of her. It's all her fault.

Even Heo Chanmi and Park Haeyoung. They're in the same section. I heard that Yoo Sua is in Section D now. 

Too bad for some, though. Remember IOI's Number Two Beauty Jung Chaeyeon? She's still in Section C. But no one could beat that Kim Sohye. She's still in Section F.

Those disturbed her to bits, making her clench a fist. 

In IOI Academy, the IOI Exam wasn't another problem. Even the ranking system was a problem wherein students would be shifted up or down to different sections (if you're from Section D at first, you might be in Section A next) and is evaluated through students' evaluations and rankings from previous mock exams. When they were still freshmen, that wasn't implemented. But when Somi transferred, it was uplifted. Sejeong found the system so weird and she was utterly pissed that the students blamed Somi's presence for the said system. But then, Somi had proven herself of her Rank on the second phase so no one dared to talk back.

"Sejeong, you okay?" Sejeong looked at the side to see Chungha holding her fist. "What's wrong?"

Sejeong smiled lightly and eased her hand. "I'm fine, Chungha."

A presence came in and everyone stopped to see that it was Teacher Jang. Nayoung stood up and everyone followed, greeting him. He greeted back.

"All Presidents of the different classes have been called by the principal. You will have a meeting right now."

Nayoung nodded and got out and went with Teacher Jang. As Nayoung left, everyone had gone frisky and had their chitchat. For Sejeong, her squad within Section A gathered around like they were in a open forum.

"What do you think is up?" Yoojung asked.

"I think it's something drastic," said Jieqiong.

"Whatever it is, it'll be another dose of ." Doyeon hissed.

"I'll text Stone Prez, Chaeyeonie, and my Penguin later~" Mina said and went back to playing games.

"Yah!" Yeunjung's voice boomed. "Maybe there'll be a change of system aga-"

"Aish! Can you keep it down?!" Doyeon and Yoojung blocked .

"Whatever it is, we need to be ready, just like old times." Sejeong sighed.

"Sejeong's right." Chungha nodded while holding Sejeong's hand. "Somi should be informed too."

"Hmm... I wonder how Somi's doing in Section B?" Yoojung asked.

+++

Somi was just surrounded by the frisky people of Section B. She watched Yeseul and Siyeon make fun of each other's notes, watched Jungmin study, and even watched Eunwoo acting all dorky. While watching the people around her, Somi thought of everything that had happened ever since she stepped foot onto the academy.

She was placed in Section A because of her previous records, especially the fact that she had an IQ of 150. Somi wasn't used to making friends since she was treated as an outcast before. Even when she got to meet her classmates like Sejeong, Mina, Jieqiong, Chanmi, and Chungha, they were almost unfriendly and didn't welcome Somi much and that even continued when she ranked 50th and got transferred to Section B with Chanmi and Haeyoung.

But that all changed during the results after the second mock exam. The 1st placer, Kim Sejeong, ranked 2nd, and she got 1st. With that, she had gained recognition, even friends.

And that was one thing Somi found so stupid about the society in the said school. Although she wouldn’t be treated like an outcast any longer, the ambiance of the school was still inevitable.

"Yo, Som~" Haeyoung greeted her.

"Hey~ wassup~" Somi greeted back, sharing high-fives.

"Our oh-so-lovely President Heo Chanmi went to the said meeting. I wonder what's up." Haeyoung sighed. "It better not be about a sudden change of system." She looked back at Somi. "You seem relaxed."

"Well that's because I'm not used to those said customs. I was even pointed out because of it. Seriously, some students are like a bunch of idiots accusing someone out of nowhere." Somi sighed back.

"So... can I have some tips on acing the exam?" Haeyoung asked.

"Hmm... just continue studying. And don't cram." Somi said and Haeyoung nodded while jotting it down on her phone.

Haeyoung said her thanks as Chanmi got back from the meeting and everyone listened.

Somi had ears as she rooted everything their class president said, all while going all lucid the hell of a reality of IOI Academy. Despite of being new in the said institution, she might've known the flow of things through her own perspectives. One thing she was craving was that a school system should be uplifted for students for self-reflection and upbringing experiences, that juveniles like them shouldn't be tormented beneath the walls of the institution, and that no one should be in jeopardy and be given opportunities against negligence and discrimination.

Somi would've thought of it as an imagination but she hoped for it without tangled uncertainty.