Monday. Exams were graded.

“Alright class, the exam from last week has been marked. There were some surprises here and there, but the overall results seem to be lower than I had anticipated.” Mrs. Oum looked at her sheet of paper with the exam rankings. “Taeyoon. After you see your exam marks, please go to the office and see Mr. Lim.”

The class took a glance at the mentioned girl and then scurried to the front to look at their rankings. Mrs. Oum stepped aside as the students swarmed around the podium.

[Class – Exam Rankings]

[Rank                 | Name               | Mark% ]

[1                        | Taeyoon         | 100        ]

[2                        | Jessica            | 97          ]

[3                        | Yuri                   | 95          ]

[…                      | …                      | …           ]

[8                        | Sunny              | 90          ]

[22                      | Tiffany             | 70          ]

[33                      | Hyoyeon         | 60          ]

“RANK 33!? AHHHHH I AM GOING CRAZY!!! 33! WHY 33!?? WHERE IS MY 32!?” Hyoyeon cried out loud frantically.

“Yah, why are you so surprised? Rank 32 and 33 is the same!” Yuri commented.

“NO, IT’S NOT!!! I WANT 32!” the girl pouted at the number.

“Can you be quiet?”

“Why? I can’t complain because I got a bad mark?”

Yuri raised an eyebrow at her, giving her an oh-really look. Then she nodded towards her side hinting that she wasn’t the only one who gotten a lower-than-expected rank.

“JESSICA IS RANK TWO!? Oh, no, I thought...” Hyoyeon finally quieted down and looked at Jessica. Jessica stayed quiet, but her expression said everything, she was clearly really, really upset.

Sunny sighed at her mark. It’s not like she can score much higher without being threatened by a certain individual. That being said, she is now worried that Taeyeon might be in trouble as Jessica clearly made her motifs clear when she threatened her on that day.

How? Tiffany wondered when she saw Taeyeon’s ranking. How is a new student who joined school 5 weeks late was able to get rank 1…and a perfect score as well. Even if Taeyeon had an amazing teacher at home, how did she get such high mark with only one day notice? Midnight cramming? But even so, that seemed impossible. She looked around the classroom, it seems that everyone was talking about Taeyeon. Too bad both Taeyeon and Jess did not have the patience to tutor her, which just makes her frown.

She felt happy for Taeyeon until Jessica’s upset face reminded Tiffany of what she saw last Friday. Deep down she had a bad feeling about whatever it was, so she decided to talk about it with Jessica when they have a break.  

70, not bad, at least it’s a Pass, I won’t die….right? She thought of her own grade. She sighed and returned to her seat, which was no longer beside Jessica. She didn’t know how to confront Jessica after what she saw, so she asked Hyoyeon to switch back. Of course, she didn’t tell them the reason, except that she wanted to listen to the lecture more closely near the front of the classroom.

Taeyeon wasn’t among the bunch that was crowded around the sheet of paper, because she knew she got perfect. The questions were pretty straightforward for her. When she entered the office, Mr. Lim was studying a sheet of paper, which she presumed to be her exam paper.

“Have a seat.” Mr. Lim instructed.

Taeyeon did as instructed.

“Wow, Taeyeon, you ended up impressing me after all. Very well written exam.” Mr. Lim gave her a subtle smile at her.

Did he just smile? She raised an eyebrow, did not know if the supervising teacher was being sarcastic, because she never seen Mr. Lim smile and using such…positive vocabulary. “You think I cheated?” She wanted to clear her doubts.

“Cheated?” Mr. Lim looked at her half surprised, then he took a pen and a blank sheet of paper from the nearby printer. “Here write…uhm…the school’s name on here.”

She did as she was told.

“Ok, you didn’t cheat.”

“Huh?” Taeyeon was confused, how did that test anything?

“Your handwriting matches.” Mr. Lim smiled a bit wider than she thought he ever could, “Ok, to be honest, I have never seen anyone written their explanation so clearly and accurate before. You made it very easy to understand. There was no way you could cheat when you can write your answers out like this.”

“What if I copied those answers?” Taeyeon wanted to make sure.

“Where could you copy these answers from? Flipping through 100 pages of textbook? Looking at the nonexistent note you took from Sunny’s notebook? Copy from your neighbours when none of them write answers like this? Not possible.”

“You sure know a lot about your students, how did you know I didn’t take any notes?”

“Mrs. Oum reports to me, remember?” Mr. Lim smiled, “Ok, stop with the suspicions. I know you probably didn’t expect to be called to the office. Well, if you do good. I am always nice. Grades are very important to a student, and it makes our school look good.”

Then Mr. Lim went through his drawers and looked through its contents. He took out a small white rectangular box, it has a transparent lid and inside it was a fancy white pen. It was very pretty. The colour of the front section was milky white with a very unique pattern. This was complimented by a clear crystal barrel being wrapped around by a trail of tiny white flowers in a spiral. The crystal could even light up in a bright purple light. Both parts were perfectly balanced, so the weight was distributed evenly and writing with it was as smooth as it can be despite the heavy materials. You just had to turn the crystal to extrude the pen tip. Even the tip had a fancy design. On the plus side, it was refillable, so you can keep using it.  

Taeyeon marvelled at the pen as she took the elegant white velvet box from Mr. Lim.

“Alright, before you leave, I want to introduce you to this essay writing contest I want you to attend.”

“Uhhh…” Taeyeon hesitated, but if she were to reject her teacher’s offer, it would feel a bit rude. “What’s the prize?”

“Your paper gets to be published in a magazine.”

“That’s it?” Taeyeon said, she was hoping for money or some present.

“What do you mean that’s it? It will be printed and published in a magazine. Normally, first year students don’t even get the privilege to join this competition. I can see some potential, so I am putting a lot of faith in you. You may be smart, but you really need to work on your attitude.”

“Ok. Teacher Lim.” Taeyeon nodded.

“Actually, that reminds me of something.” Mr. Lim took out another item from his drawer, it was a magazine. “If your essay gets published, this magazine is yours.”

Taeyeon took a look of the magazine. It was a magazine from Celerity, that giant company with the big fancy glass building in the capital…the cover was signed by BoA, one of her most respected artists.

“Wow, teacher how did you know?”

“You like BoA? That’s perfect then. Remember, win the contest first and this magazine will be waiting here in this drawer.”

“Are you sure? Didn’t you say I was only in the school for a short amount of time…why suddenly the generosity?”

“Whoa there Taeyoon, win the contest first before opening that big mouth of yours! This is very special magazine to me, so do your best.”

“Oh…Ok.” Taeyeon blinked and exited the room.

After she exited the office, she was greeted by Sunny, who congratulated her, and an unexpected Jessica, who sneered and quickly turned away at the sight of the girl.

------

“Hey, what did Mr. Lim say? Are you in trouble?” Tiffany asked her partly worried.

“Tiffany, she is not in trouble! I was there. You won’t believe what had happened!” Sunny exclaimed, she was happy that Taeyeon got a compliment. What’s happier to her was that Taeyeon is ok. A big relief for her after contemplating about her safety the entire weekend.

Everybody looked at their direction.

Sunny looked at the class, and immediately dipped down her head. Taeyeon saw, so she moved Sunny and Tiffany to her desk to talk quietly. Sunny continued.

“So, Mr. Lim gave Taeyoon a very beautiful pen for doing good. I have never seen anything like it! Not only that he invited Taeyoon to enter the essay writing contest, if she wins, her article is going to get published in a magazine. And! Mr. Lim will give her a magazine signed by BoA!”

“Really!? I don’t think even Jessica gotten this opportunity before!” Tiffany’s loud voice could be heard across the room. “Can I see that pen?”

“Taeyoon is so lucky. I look up to BoA so much!”

“Do you guys want everyone to hear you?” Taeyeon warned her, handing Tiffany the pen for her to drool over.

…

Tiffany looked across the room, everyone was already chattering  amongst themselves. When her eyes reached Jessica’s desk, she was surprised to see that Jessica was still absent from the room.

It was 15 minutes after class started when Jessica finally returned to class.

“Where were you, Miss. Jung?” the teacher asked.

“Uh…I had a stomach-ache, sorry.” She bowed her head and returned to her seat. There was a sly grin when she sat down.

------

“Why do we have so much homework and exams!? This is so not fair.” Jessica whined in her seat, after hearing that they have another project, on top of their regular assignments and quizzes. She looked at Tiffany and noticed the girl, who used to always worry when there’s too much to do, now is quiet and calm. Unknowingly to her, the girl was just worried about something else.

“Jess.” Tiffany finally spoke.

“Tiff, you are acting weird. Why have you been quiet with me for the entire day so far?”

“Have I? Sorry, ah. Uhm…I was just wondering about all the work we have. Anyway, where did you guys go after school last Friday?”

Jessica knitted her eyebrows thinking back. “Oh! Hyo, Yuri, and I went to eat desserts at a café, then we watched some movies…that was it. Why? Do you regret that you stayed in the library?” Jessica smiled teasingly at her best friend.

“Rea