For a week after the exam, she expected Sunny to forgive her. And she did genuinely hope Sunny did well.

From her first semester at the school until now, she just goofed around because she thought the materials were too easy.

Who knew God decided to send her a pretty friend with the most stunning smile and a girl who’s just as short as her to face the school's devil?

She didn’t, and she took it for granted.

Every night when she is working on her things, her mind replayed her time at Tiffany’s.

Occasionally those thoughts would get interrupted whenever Sunny came into the scene. Now that she took the time to remember what they had done. There were good memories.

When the two studied together, they would laugh at some dude’s funny hair and outfit during history class. In math class, they would make up math problems that had a comic but nonsense scenario.

But yeah, she doesn’t remember anything about Sunny’s interests, what she’s good at, her favourite food or anything at all. On the other hand, the girl bought her video games, took her out for ice cream when Tiffany was too busy and even gave her her mother’s business card to try and help her. Maybe she just misses Tiffany. Whatever lesson the eye smiling friend of hers is trying to teach her, it’s working. It’s mind-boggling.

“Taeyoon, the teacher asked you to see him at the office after class.” A classmate delivered the news and left.

------

“Hey Lim, are you sure this was the student you were so excited about?” asked the principal. His concerned brown eyes darted back and forth between two grade sheets of a particular student.

“She was almost a perfect student.” Said Mr. Lim with much confidence, but he had to sigh when he glanced at the grade report.

“Look at her grades. Last semester, she had a perfect average in both terms of the semester. But look at her scores now. It’s not like you don’t know our school’s rules; if her grades get any lower, we will owe other parents and students an explanation.” The principal said with a finger tapping harshly on the paper.

“I mean, just look….” Mr. Lim paused when she realized the girl is standing at the office door.

Although the principal cared for his students, it’s an arduous task to maintain the image of the school’s most sought-after program. The rules were if a student falls behind by more than ten percent behind the class, they will have to resign the benefits. And Taeyeon was only 2% away.

“Taeyoon.” The principal beckoned her over to his desk. “I understand that you are from an adopted family. From the many times your mom came to the school to get you registered, I know you may have some problems at home. All the more, you can’t just take your exams like a joke and hand it in before everyone else.”

“But teacher, I am not having any trouble…Here.” Taeyeon leaned in closer to the principal and gave him a sheepish grin. “Look, look at my dimples, aren’t they pretty?”

The middle-aged man was disconcerted for half a second by such random behaviour. He opened his mouth to say something, yet no voice came.

“This won’t do.” He finally said, shaking his head. “Looks like there is something serious going on with you if you can act this irrationally.”

Taeyeon looked away and subtly rolled her big wide eyes.

“If you have any problems in life, at home or school, talk about it with  Mr. Lim or me. We can solve a problem together.” Added the principal in a softer tone.

“Yeah! That’s a great idea!” Taeyeon exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “But there is no problem to solve! So may I go back now?”

 “Taeyoon.” This time it was Mr.Lim who spoke. “How many times have I told you to fix that attitude of yours? You can be witty with your friends, but don’t bring that here.” Her former literature teacher warned before showing her grade report and her previous tests and quizzes. “Can you perhaps tell me why you are intentionally trying to get 86% on every assignment?”

The principal knitted his eyebrows at that, becoming more interested in the matter.

Mr. Lim brought the papers to the principal’s desk and pointed out her grades. Every mark on her assignments showed an 86% that made the latter take off his glasses to look closer.  

“And we know you did this intentionally. You worked through a complex integration word problem, yet you can’t add two natural numbers?”

Not hearing a reply, Mr. Lim continued to describe a pattern he discovered in Taeyeon’s assignments. From getting problems wrong on purpose when she got a perfect mark on a similar question. In long answers, it seemed like Taeyeon had figured out a pattern in their grading scheme and only wrote enough necessary for her to pass that question. Then there are times when she just doodled in the blank space for long answer questions because she had enough marks to get her an 86.

Taeyeon ended up admitting she did it on purpose out of amusement, earning some discerning looks from Mr. Lim and the principal.

“Are you perhaps being picked on?”

She pointed her finger at herself and asked, “Are you crazy?”

“Answer properly.”

“No.”

“Is there anything that you are taking it too hard? Any psychological issues? Suicidal