After sorting out various things like that.
I finally entered the classroom to take my final exams.
Once I got through the final exams that started this Monday, and continued to Tuesday and Wednesday, the Friday of the week after next would be the long-awaited semester closing ceremony.
Although the preliminary round of the science competition was sandwiched in between, it was safe to say that the first semester of the first year was pretty much wrapped up.
Wow~ this first semester is really long..."
It seemed like these were probably the most troublesome three months of my life.
I took my seat at the exam desk and checked my OMR pen.
Since we were seated in numerical order, the club members sitting in front sneaked a glance at me from the front and tossed out a few words of encouragement.
"Prez, do well on your exam."
"Joon, fighting.."
"Thanks, you guys do well too."
Behind me, whose attendance number
was 14, number 15 Jinhee was already
face down on her desk asleep, so she
didn't say a word.
And so, the bell for first period rang,
and the homeroom teacher who came
in to supervise the Korean language
exam handed out the test papers and
OMR sheets.
"What a coincidence that I came in to supervise my own subject, and it just so happens to be my class too. I'll tell you
the answers starting from number one.
Three, six, nine, three, six, nine.."
"....."
"Three, six, nine, three, six, nine... one."
The homeroom teacher suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.
I was just about to write my name on the answer sheet when I flinched and looked up at the homeroom teacher.
The teacher chuckled.
"You're too slow. The answer is cornfield. Cornfield."
"....."
"Student Hayoon, make sure he answers cornfield later. I will be checking it."
Hayoon, who was taking the test in the seat next to mine, glanced at me with a blank expression before averting her gaze.
Regardless of anyone's attention, the homeroom teacher bustled about by himself, muttering under his breath the entire time.
"I made it easy, easy... It's all material from the textbook. If you look over it carefully, you'll remember. Now~ take your time and read it through. Don't rush and make mistakes, make sure to check that you haven't missed anything..."
'Ugh, be a little quieter.'
On top of the exam, I had to deal with all sorts of things because of the doppelgänger incident, so I couldn't study much over the weekend.
Anyway, despite the homeroom teacher's distractions, I plowed through the problems without much problem.
After all, I was pretty confident when it came to the language section.
'Hmm, number 30, number 31... okay..'
And finally, I reached the last problem of the Korean language session.
I read through the passage slowly.
[36]
«If you remember this question until the age of twenty, you will suddenly receive a phone call in the year you turn twenty, asking for the answer.»
[A blind man was stranded on a deserted island with his wife.
Just before they were about to starve to death, the wife barely managed to catch a seagull and fed it to her husband, and the two waited for rescue like that.
A few days later, a rescue ship arrived, but sadly, the wife had already died.
The man was rescued alone, grieving. After many years had passed, he remembered the seagull meat his wife had given him back then and went to a restaurant that served seagull meat.
He took a bite of the meat, then grabbed the fork in front of him and stabbed his own neck, killing himself]
[Why did the man commit suicide?]
'Yes! I know this one.'
Fortunately, it was a passage I had read before.
This one's simple. The truth is, what the man ate on the deserted island was his wife's flesh.
When the taste of the meat she had given him—claiming it was seagull—turned out to be completely different from actual seagull meat, the man realized everything too late and, overwhelmed with guilt, took his own life.
So that's why… he killed himself…
Scratch, scratch.
I was in the middle of neatly writing my answer in the subjective section of the OMR paper when, only then, I suddenly realized—
I put down the name-tag pen.
But… this is definitely a question I know—so how do I know it?
"...…."
I slowly raised my head.
And then, far ahead, I looked at the homeroom teacher standing at the podium with his hands behind his back.
When our eyes met, he immediately broke into a sly, knowing grin.
I slowly pulled my hand away, then—tap—I set the pen down.
Screech—
Lucky, it didn't fall to the ground, but as I hurriedly tried to catch it, I ended up dragging a line across the OMR sheet.
Soon, the homeroom teacher, wearing a sly smile, approached me with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Well, well… what seems to be the matter, Joon?"
"...…."
"For a model student ranked 15th in the whole school, you seem quite flustered. Heh heh…"
With an unpleasant grin, the teacher came closer and looked down at me.
"Was my exam question a bit too difficult for you…? Hmm…?"
"...…."
"Hoho… hoho… hmm..."
"Uhi! Uhi! Kuhahaha! Kuhaha—hahahahaha!! Wahahahaha!!!
"Teacher!"
Suddenly, Vice Class President Chaerin raised her hand and called out to the teacher.
"The last question is a bit strange!"
"W-what did you say?"
The teacher stopped laughing mid-way, his expression turning flustered as he hurried over to her. Soon, one by one, other students began raising their hands as well.
"Me too."
"Me tooo"
"Me too…"
"Question 36 is weird. It feels unpleasant…"
"Uh, uh-huh? There is a question 36? Ah, let me take a look."
The homeroom teacher hurriedly compared the exam papers of other students to check.
Soon, with a flustered expression, he fumbled his way out of the classroom.
"W-what is this? This isn't a question I made… I-I'll go check the other classes as well, so please wait. This is serious…"
behind-the-scenes adult who had suddenly made a mistake.
The homeroom teacher's expression had completely fallen apart.
As we were all murmuring among ourselves,
Gyeongwon, sitting up front, turned toward me and mouthed something.
[Special Ability: Lip Reading activated.]
["Prez, this is that ghost story you ran into during the midterms."]
I nodded, showing that I understood.
Soon, the homeroom teacher hurried back into the classroom.
"Alright, it's an error. An error—I'll correct it."
Student murmuring.
"…You may ignore Question 36. Anyone who attempted it, please replace your OMR sheet I'll give you plenty of time until the break, so…"
A frustrated groan spread through the classroom with Ahhh…
The homeroom teacher walked around, trying to clean up the situation one by one.
"I'm sorry about this, everyone… well, since it's a question that wasn't actually included, even if you guessed it, it won't be graded. Still, those who made mistakes, please quickly switch to a new OMR sheet…"
And so, the Korean exam finally ended in a chaotic haze.
We weren't supposed to move until the last student submitted their answer sheet, but Sunah checked hers so slowly that she practically ate up all our class time. Even the break ended up being skipped entirely.
Only after finishing the remaining exams for the day did we finally get a chance to talk about it.
"Hey, wasn't the homeroom teacher up to something? He was laughing in such an unsettling way."
"No… I think he was just… smile normally "
Based on the reaction afterward, he was clearly panicking—so it doesn't seem like it was something he personally arranged.
"More importantly, there's no way he'd insert a ghost story that's already been resolved. It has no effect anymore."
"I guess… that makes sense?"
While the club members were still doubtful, Gyungwon nodded first.
"That's right, Prez. That ghost story was something Cult Leader In Taesang had that science teacher insert during the midterms. It was meant to test whether the keyword '20 years old' was suitable for you or not. In the end, they confirmed that you're regressor—"
They discovered I was a regression user with the ability activated, and all their objectives had already been achieved. There was no reason for the White Cult to reuse it again.
"Then why did he laugh, Joon…?"
"He's always been strange, you know "
I shrugged and picked up my bag.
Anyway, just like last time, no phone call came, and nothing else happened.
Whether this was just a coincidence or something someone orchestrated, I'd have to wait and see.
For now, there was nothing to do but wait.
"Let's head home first. The day's over, and we still have more final exams left. We should study."
"Right."
One by one, the club members packed their bags and followed me out of the classroom.
"Hey, but how was your exam today?"
"Just so-so. There was one question I was a bit unsure about. In Social Studies, the part about the Paris Climate Agreement—the goal of it was…"
"Oh, hey, I know that part…"
And so, the remaining two days of exams passed without any issues.
On Wednesday—the final day—after fourth period English, I stretched my arms wide and let out a long sigh.
"Wow… finally done…"
"Good work~"
The supervising teacher, Ms. Jang Hwa eun, smiled as she said goodbye and left the classroom.
Soon after, Jinhee casually walked over to our group, weaving through the club members.
"Hey, let's have a post-exam hangout. A proper after-party."
"You slept all three days and now you're saying that…?"
"We're doing it, right? Right? right? All of us?"
"Of course."
I nodded, loosening my shoulders.
Come to think of it, this is the first time we're all hanging out together outside.
When it was just the guys, it was always straight to a PC café. But now that girls were joining too, I couldn't help worrying about how to plan something like this.
But seeing Jinhee, with a serious expression, grabbing Sunah and Gyeongwon and explaining things with more focus than during a match, those worries quickly it seemed like I didn't need to worry after all.
"Hey, listen up. First, we go to a buffet for lunch. Then we hit up 'The Sting,' the premium buffet run by King of Singers Pyo Yong-il until 2. After that, we go to an escape room, then a VR room, and then a café…"
Timid Sunah kept her eyes lowered, quietly going "Mm…" as she listened, while Gyeongwon stayed expressionless and slowly tried to turn his head away only for Jinhee to grab him again and continue passionately explaining with hand gestures.
**
The streets after the exams were packed with students in school uniforms.
At this hour, there were barely any college students or office workers around yet, so the streets felt like they belonged entirely to us. In some places, though, overly cocky high schoolers would pick fights with each other.
We also headed into Clover Department Store to go to the buffet, and as we all tried to pile into the elevator together, a group wearing uniforms from another school told us to get lost since they were getting on first. Then Jinhee slapped one of them and completely wiped the floor with them.
"Seriously, these guys have no damn manners, huh? Hey, what school are you from?"
"We're sorry, we're sorry...."
"Hey, the bastard who told us to get lost earlier, come back out. Say that again."
"We're sorry....!"
While enjoying the moment of watching the punks from the other school bow their heads and apologize, we saw the department store staff coming over after hearing the commotion. We quickly hopped into the elevator and headed into the buffet.
"Wow~ seriously, when you let loose a bunch of kids in uniforms on the street without any adults, it's a total animal kingdom. So many kids looking for a fight.
Still, it's reassuring having Lee Jin-hee around.
"Yeah…"
Sunah let out a small giggle as she looked at Jinhee.
Despite our praise, Jinhee didn't show much reaction. She just piled her plate high with food and awkwardly moved around with Deokhun trailing behind her, trying to manage the dishes.
I brought Sunah along and shared what I was thinking.
"Since Ahn Hayoon's family well-off, she's probably been to places like this a lot. This is my first time at somewhere this expensive too. Sunah, I think we should just follow her around and see how it's done first."
"Yeah, I think you're right, Joon…"
Sunah giggled and agreed, and we followed Hayoon from a distance like spies, copying her movements exactly as we picked out our food.
In middle of it all, Gyeongwon waved at us from afar, calling out, "President~ they have lobster ramen over here~," but we naturally ignored him.
'Get lost, you nouveau riche!'
And just like that, we ended up so full we could barely walk, wandered around the department store for a bit, and then headed outside to try an escape room game.
"Wow, 30,000 won per person…"
"Isn't that way too expensive? If it weren't for the 1 billion won the president brought, we'd never come to a place like this."
"Since we're already here, let's not worry about money and just enjoy it. Alright, let's go in."
Since all six of us couldn't fit into one room, we split into groups of three. I ended up on the same team as Jinhee and Deokhun.
Things got a bit chaotic here, because Jinhee kept insisting that something which clearly wasn't a clue was actually —ripping things apart recklessly or making a complete mess. At one point, Deokhun sat down heavily on a prop saying he needed a break, and it collapsed—he almost had to pay for the damages.
"Seriously? Our side was calm—we cleared it without any issues."
"That's because your group was full of quiet people. Alright, let's go to the VR room!"
In the VR room, Hayoon showed an unexpectedly clumsy side.
Unlike her usual calm and composed self, the moment she put on the VR headset and the game started, she panicked and hurriedly stepped back. Even after getting somewhat used to it, she was still overly tense.
…she stayed so tense that she hunched her shoulders and played in a bent posture, which made us laugh.
"Looks like Hayoon is unexpectedly weak when it comes to the latest high-tech stuff."
It suited her—someone who doesn't really know the latest pop songs, only reads physical books, and always studies by writing everything out in her own handwriting. She was the kind of person who lived completely analog.
We had fun like that until the sun went down, and then wrapped up the day by chatting together at a café about what had happened.
"No, but then that otaku, without any sense, just plopped down and sat right on top of a cardboard box—"
"Exactly! Can't you tell by looking at it? That was a prop!""Hahaha..."
"Puhat..."
"Oi, oi..."
While we were laughing like that, the club members suddenly turned to me and asked.
"By the way, where is teacher Hwa-eun?"
"Oh, right."
Just as I clapped my hands together and was about to contact her, Sunah spoke up on my behalf."She said she's busy grading today..."
"I see. If she's busy, there's nothing we can do."
***
After we'd finished playing and had our fun, it came back to mind.
"So back then, that guy…"
"Puhaha…"
"Ahaha…"
"Shit "