The bell rang. Most of the students picked up their pens and opened their exam sheets to read the questions. The first subject was literature comprehension.
Billy, however, did not immediately start writing. He looked around the room. Then he looked at his sheet. Then he looked up again.
Lisa was writing, but she felt something strange. She glanced around and suddenly noticed Billy looking around. Without hesitation, she raised her hand.
"Teacher," she said loudly, pointing at Billy, "he is cheating."
Billy's face turned red with anger. "Are you crazy? Who's cheating? Stupid!"
Lisa opened her mouth to scold him back, but the invigilator interrupted. "Stop," he said firmly. "You—do not look around. And you—do not curse your classmates. Both of you, keep working on your exams."
Everyone had been watching the quarrel, but now they turned back to their papers. Billy glared at Lisa for a moment, then looked down at his sheet.
He didn't know most of the answers. So he chose randomly.
His method was unusual. He had written "A—B—C—D" on different sides of his square-shaped eraser. The eraser had six sides, but there were only four choices. For the extra two sides, he wrote the letters again—one more "A" and one more "B." So when he threw the eraser, if it landed on a side with a repeated letter, he had to throw it again until he got a unique choice.
This method only worked for multiple-choice questions. For other types of questions—short answer, essay, fill-in-the-blank—he either wrote something random or left them blank.
Meanwhile, Hanky appeared to be sleeping at his desk. But he wasn't really sleeping. He was waiting for answers from Ketto.
When he got bored of waiting, he would look around the room and observe what Ketto was doing. Ketto didn't lift his head, but he could feel that someone was watching him. It made him feel embarrassed. He didn't know how to respond, so he just avoided eye contact.
The invigilator occasionally walked around the room to check for cheating. Ketto, when he encountered a question he wasn't sure about, would behave very conflicted. His expression was funny—eyebrows furrowed, lips pursed, head tilted slightly. When Hanky observed this, he couldn't help but laugh.
The invigilator immediately noticed. "No laughing," he said sharply. "Follow the rules. Obey the exam regulations."
Ketto didn't know what Hanky was laughing at. He just felt confused. But he didn't think too much about it. He turned to the next page to continue with the following section.
Then he heard a sound: Pssss.
He looked up. Hanky was using his eyes and eyebrows to signal him—a clear reminder to let him copy the answers.
Ketto nodded slightly. He glanced at the invigilator and saw that the teacher was not looking in their direction. Carefully, he moved his answer sheet to the corner of his desk, the side closest to Hanky. He pretended that the sheet was nearly falling off, positioning it at an angle that made it easy for Hanky to read.
Hanky was quick-witted and clever. He pretended to be writing something, but his eyes were scanning Ketto's answers. At the same time, he kept observing the invigilator's movements. The teacher didn't catch him—because Hanky looked completely normal.
After Hanky finished copying one page, he waited quietly for Ketto to turn to the next page. He looked at Ketto with a gentle gaze. This kind of look—warm, soft, almost affectionate—was something Ketto couldn't handle. It made his heart flutter. He would glance at Hanky for just a moment, then quickly turn back to his paper. But he understood what he needed to do next.
Whenever Ketto encountered a difficult question, he would furrow his eyebrows in concentration. Hanky noticed this and found it... cute.
Billy was not so fortunate.
He couldn't copy from anyone. Every time he lifted his head even a little bit, Lisa would notice and report him to the invigilator.
"Dead thirty-eight," Billy whispered under his breath. "Awful woman. Bitch."
He felt terrible. Unlucky. He moaned quietly, careful not to let his voice carry too far. If Lisa heard him, she would report him again.
He felt like a criminal in a prison, and Lisa was the prison guard—strict, harsh, and impossible to escape. She restricted everything he tried to do. He thought he was the unluckiest person in the room.
Hanky, on the other hand, was very happy.
He could easily copy the correct answers from a straight-A student without worrying about anything. No one around him reported his bad behavior—because no one noticed. They were all too focused on their own exams, too busy writing and thinking to pay attention to what Hanky was doing.
For Hanky, the exam was effortless.
When the first exam ended, Billy complained loudly.
"I was sitting next to a female tiger!" he said, his voice full of frustration. "I couldn't copy anything! Not a single answer!"
Lucas and Hanky just laughed.
Lisa also complained. She said Billy had constantly bothered her during the exam. His suspicious movements—looking around, fidgeting, whispering—had interrupted her concentration.
"He's an unlucky guy," Lisa said, shaking her head. "And annoying."
Billy overheard her and opened his mouth to argue, but then he thought better of it. He didn't want another fight. Not now. Not here.
Instead, he just sighed and slumped back in his chair, already dreading the next exam.