Chapter 43 – Episode 43 Counterattack (3)
First day of exam
Yes, the centipede class president stood in front of the teacher’s table and spoke to her children.
“Um, guys… I’ll sing the answers, guys.”
“Oh, what is the answer? I’ll just send you home.”
“That’s right. Let’s check only the kids who are interested.”
“Hey, can’t you just call the class president and have Damtaeng call you?”
As usual, the class president was having a hard time due to the students not cooperating at all. It was an incident that happened every time an exam leader was conducted, but the class in front of the teacher’s table seemed unfamiliar with it.
“Well… The teacher said I must do this…”
“Hey, just let me do it quickly, so I can go as quickly as possible. Call the class president quickly~”
“Uh… Yes. Then, I’ll sing the geography subject first. Number 1 and number 4. Number 2 and number 1…”
After singing all three answers to the test subjects on the first day, the class president went out to call the homeroom teacher.
After a while, the homeroom teacher, Soo-jeong Hong, and the class leader entered the classroom carrying a basket containing cell phones.
“There is nothing special about today’s funeral… Everyone is studying hard for the exam.”
Sujeong, who had nothing in particular to convey, was looking around the children as she finished wrapping up, but stopped looking at Yeji’s face her.
A strict daughter who is the best in the group and is also an elite academic. She had been living an uneventful life since doing her bidding last year, but she was aware that her students were growing resentful of her recently.
She wanted to consult again, but she soon found out that it was her final exam period, so she did not want to affect the exam, so she was just watching for now. Yeji’s expression was the same as usual, but she seemed a little nervous somewhere.
“The end of the bell.”
After the bell ceremony was over, the students moved to look for their cell phones on the Ururu teacher’s table. Naturally, priority was given to these tasks in order of seniority, and members of the Yeji group, Hyehyun, Zinc, and Sia, went first to retrieve the cell phone.
Soon, Hye-hyeon found the zipper bag containing her cell phone and took out her cell phone.
Yeji and A-yeon exchanged glances, and A-yeon waited behind Hye-hyeon for her to turn on her cell phone. There was no need to worry about Zinc’s position her her looking strange if it was a crowded situation with people rushing to get her her cell phone her her her her.
“Ah…!”
At that moment, an unexpected variable occurred.
Hye-hyeon took out her cell phone, turned it on, and was leaving the classroom. She tried to catch a glimpse of her pattern as a confused Zinc followed her, but Yeji stopped Zinc from doing so.
Absolutely
While Yeji blocked her zinc, Hyehyun left her classroom completely and was no longer able to be confirmed.
“Yeji, why…”
There were still a few more days left before the exam, but since it was an opportunity that only came once a day, it was important to figure it out as quickly as possible. These thoughts made Zinc impatient, and if Yeji had not stopped her, she would have made a fatal mistake.
“You might not notice it if you check it among the kids like you do now, but if you follow them while they’re walking and peek from behind, there’s a very high chance of getting caught. Above all, it’s easy to sense the presence of someone walking. You can never arouse suspicion once. It’s better to try again tomorrow. It will get better.”
Zinc realized that she could almost made a big mistake and let out a sigh of relief. However, she only passed the crisis, but her plan was not yet successful.
“Whew… Then what should I do? If tomorrow is the same, nothing will change…”
“… I’ll do my best for now. Anyway, we still have time, so let’s not rush.”
“Okay… Okay, Yeji.”
So the first day’s attempt ended in failure.
Second day of exam
The second day was a day where there were only two subjects to be tested. After grading the answers, people came in with their cell phones and there was no special message, so the ceremony ended right away.
Just like yesterday, Yeji’s group came out first to get their phones, and Hyehyun turned on her phone and walked out of the classroom.
“Cheon Hye-hyeon.”
Yeji thought that if she let her go like this, she would just waste the opportunity repeatedly and pointlessly, so she called Hyehyeon.
“?”
Hye-hyeon looked at Ye-ji, who had called her, with an expression asking what was going on.
“…”
Because she was in a hurry, she succeeded in calling Hye-hyeon, but the words did not come out quickly. She couldn’t help but feel burdened because she had to respond as naturally as possible. A-yeon was already watching for her opportunity behind Hye-hyeon’s back.
“Why? Do you have something to say?”
As she looked at Hye-hyeon urging her on, she glanced at the cell phone in her hand. It was clear that it had turned on, but the phone had not been unlocked or otherwise done since. She was just holding the phone in her right hand and looking at herself with her arms crossed.
It was a foreknowledge that she had been thinking all day yesterday about conversation topics to prepare for situations like this.
“You were interested in Rodby cosmetics, right? I happened to have a spare exchange voucher, so I thought I’d give it to you.”
“Suddenly?”
Rather than general conversation content, we had to guide people to content that required them to check their phones. It would be clear if it was schedule-related, but there was no way that Hye-hyeon’s schedule could have been known in the first place.
However, Yeji did not want to make an appointment with Hyehyeon first. It was clear that she would get into trouble just like last time. This method was postponed as a last resort and the gift of exchange voucher was thought of.
It was fortunate that she was able to understand Hye-hyeon’s tastes to some extent.
“Yeah, I’m using something else.”
“Hmm~”
Hye-hyeon thought for a moment, then smiled and declined.
“I don’t like it.”
“Uh… Huh? Why?”
“You say you don’t use it? I don’t like it because it feels like I’m disposing of garbage?”
Yeji, who made a mistake, thought of a response as calmly as possible. She had to coax Hye-hyeon as much as possible, fitting her mood.
“Actually, I bought it as a gift for you. I said that at first because I was afraid you might feel burdened if I told you I bought it myself.”
“Really? What kind of gift is this out of the blue? Is there a reason you need to impress me?”
“You should know better than that, right?”
Fortunately, a justification was created naturally.
‘Please… Take it.’
The few seconds that Hye-hyeon answered felt like dozens of minutes.
“Okay, if that’s your intention, I’ll accept it. I don’t know if that will change anything.”
In fact, even if it was a luxury brand, Hye-hyeon had no intention of receiving it from Ye-ji and using it. Hye-hyeon’s intention was to first receive and exchange the gift, and then throw the gift away like trash in front of Ye-ji. She is just like Yeji did before.
However, that desire for revenge was helping Yeji’s plan succeed for now.
“…I sent it. Please check.”
Wow-
A vibrating sound rang out from Hyehyeon’s hands as she crossed her arms.
“Okay, I’ll use it well. Then I’m leaving~”
Instead of checking her messages by vibrating, Hye-hyeon tried to leave the classroom without even opening her cell phone.
Embarrassed, Yeji hurriedly blocked Hyehyeon’s path. It was impossible to use the same method twice today, so I thought that if I let Hyehyeon go like this, she won’t have another chance.
“Wait!”
“Oh what again! Why!”
Hye-hyeon frowned and showed her irritation.
“I thought it would be a good idea to check if the message was sent properly. It could be confused with other message vibrations, right?
“You said you sent it? Then it must have come.”
“But you never know. Since I’m giving it as a gift, I want to be sure.”
After Hye-hyeon, who was looking at Ye-ji strangely, checked her KakaoTalk with her pattern, she answered Ye-ji.
“You’ve come to the right place. All right? I’m leaving.”
“…Okay, goodbye.”
“Yeji, it went well. It was captured perfectly!”
In an empty classroom, Yeji and A-yeon checked Hye-hyeon’s cell phone unlock pattern.
The first plan was for Zinc to peek behind her, but Zinc, who was not confident, changed the plan to take a video of the moment she unlocked her phone rather than check it with her own eyes and memorize it.
If we were to have a conversation in the same place as we did today, we thought it would be safer in terms of distance to record it on video from a distance, as A-yeon said, so Ye-ji agreed to this. She didn’t have to worry about forgetting it and thought there would be no problem identifying the pattern even if the image quality was poor. Of course, these days, cell phone cameras have good resolution even with tens of times zoom, so it was a useless worry.
“Okay, I’ve confirmed the pattern… Now the important thing is when to do it.”
During the final exam period, there are three subjects tested on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and two subjects tested on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
In order to secure as much time as possible from immediately after the test to the time of answering the correct answers, I had to choose one day between Wednesday and Friday to test the three subjects.
“Running is on Friday.”
Yeji, who had been thinking of Friday from the beginning, confirmed the date.
Considering the possibility of failing to secure Hye-hyeon’s cell phone in the teacher’s office, it would be right to try tomorrow and prepare on Friday just in case. But in that case, the possibility of solving the final difficulty becomes dim. There was not enough time to find an alternative method right now.
There was another reason why I chose Friday. The final test subject is Korean. This is a subject taught by Hong Soo-jeong, Ye-ji’s homeroom teacher. According to school rules, teachers whose subjects are being tested must wait in the teacher’s office to respond to errors in test questions without going in to supervise the test.
If corrections are not made by the test proctor, you can even save time organizing the answer sheet after the final test.
“Finally… Yeji, I’ll do my best too. I’ll definitely succeed!”
“Thank you, A-yeon. If it weren’t for you…”
Unable to continue speaking, Yeji’s eyes filled with tears.
The orders Hye-hyeon had given over the past two weeks were far from humiliating or disgraceful, but they were very difficult orders for Ye-ji.
Picking a fight with kids who had no intention of fighting was purely one-sided violence. She felt sorry that A-yeon and Sia were fighting and criticizing her because of her, and more than anything, she felt very uncomfortable.
Zinc, who had been watching Yeji’s violent behavior for the past two weeks, also felt very sorry for her. She almost stepped in and made an excuse for Ye-ji, but then she knew that Hye-hyeon would notice her strangeness of her, so she had no choice but to watch as usual.
In the end, A-yeon hugged Ye-ji, who cried silently due to her emotional distress.
