14. Midterms

I entered my home after finally surviving school. On my way, I got some painkillers and ointment for bruises. I locked myself in my room with the excuse that I was studying for exams which was not entirely a lie. My back, stomach and calves were bruised black and blue because of Daejung's 'fun game' and it was getting too painful to bear with. After bandaging myself I got to my studies without wasting another moment. With all the syllabus that I have to cover, I think I'll get only two-three hours of sleep tonight.

Sehun hyung messaged me earlier asking if I needed any help studying and even offered to study in a group with him and Jongsuk but I refused and promised to join them next time. Sometimes, I feel unsure about their friendliness but maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Mom left me some light snacks but I'm sure if I ate too much I'll surely get indigestion. I'm so panicked that I don't know where to begin. After wrapping a heating pad around my waist, I settled with the order of the exams instead of wasting more time.

~~

When I was finally done studying, I glanced at my phone and saw it was already 5:00 am. Guess I'll just take a nap before revising again. I yawned as I set up my alarm for 45 minutes.

Ugh... My muscles ache more because I haven't rested at all since yesterday, not to mention, the huge bruises I had. I've got to come at least third in the whole grade or else I'll end up losing my scholarship in no time. It's no use thinking about all that. Let's just go to sleep quickly.

~~

Today the corridors of Delight Highschool were extra silent. Most students were burying their heads in their books, yet the majority were carefree. I felt reckless since the exams were about to begin in half an hour. Jongsuk had told me that every student needs to have at least 55% in every subject to clear the exams. But to be about to maintain my scholarship since I didn't enter here by a recommendation. Not many know about this but if a board of directors recommends a student they need to score at least 90% to get admission here. Meanwhile, I needed to get 96% for the same.

There are a total of six subjects of which one is after the lunch break since today the break will be delayed. Even Daejung and the rest were unusually quiet today. Guess I can have a moment of peace today. I sat on my bench, revising the material for the first test, which fortunately was Korean History and Social Studies.

~~

It was now 2 pm and the last exam was English and I was quite confident about it. Today has been the calmest one so far and I'm loving it. For scholarship students, the canteen lunch was free, however, the rest of the kids had to pay certain fees for the same.

Today there was Kimchi stew with some side dishes for lunch. While I was eating my lunch and revising the notebook, I heard some kids joking behind me.

"I'm telling you, I'm dead if the questions are tough for English!"

"Ya! Don't push me and walk properly."

The boy bumped into me and the hot water in his glass splashed on my arm. I hissed in pain and the boy worriedly got up. By his expression, I could tell he didn't do it knowingly as he soon offered me a handkerchief to dry myself. I politely refused and rushed to the washroom. I instantly kept my arm under the flowing water. My wrist and forearm were red from the burn.

Ugh... It hurts... Maybe I should go to the nurse's office.

"Are you alright?", I heard a voice come from behind. It was the other guy from earlier. "I'm sorry, I should have been more careful..."

"It's fine. Not like you did that deliberately."

"Do you want me to accompany you to the nurse's office?", he offered feeling guilty.

"I don't know, should you? I mean you probably wouldn't want to be seen with me."

"Oh... Sorry..."

I gave him a small grin, telling him that it was alright and went to the nurse.

After the nurse bandaged my arm, there was barely any time left for the last exam.

The pain in my wrist and forearm was not any less than before and it certainly didn't help in writing my exam. My speed was a bit slow but before I could even attend the last question, the bell had rung. I reluctantly gave up my paper to the teacher.