Rival | Kim Seungmin

Rank

Yeeun POV

I was sitting at my desk when Jiyeon tapped on my shoulder. "What is it?" I asked as I turned around.

"Don't you want to check your rank?" She asked, pointing towards the door as we watched a swarm of students rush to the board outside.

I looked back at her anxiously. "Not really, I'm scared."

"Of what? Being at the top," she said in disbelief. "Come on," she pulled me out of my chair and dragged me to the scoreboard. "See, what's there to worry about, you're rank 2 like always," she gestured towards the board nonchalantly.

"Wait, what? Rank 2?" She said in shock while taking another look at the scores. I followed her gaze to see my name right under Kim Seungmin. Him again? Why do I always fall behind him? It always makes people start rumors.

"Why are you surprised? You can't really think Yeeun is better than him right?" a girl beside her scoffed.

"Why don't you keep your opinion to yourself? This is a two-way conversation," I retorted, causing her to shift her eyes towards me.

"So just because everyone's been talking about you, you think you can say whatever you want?" She laughed.

"What about me then? I have a few words I want to say, care to listen?" Jiyeon raised a brow.

She rolled her eyes before walking away as Jiyeon pretended to strangle the air. "People seriously get on my nerves," she huffed. "If she didn't walk away any sooner I would've-"

"Calm down, just forget about it," I interrupted, earning a frown from her.

"If I see her again, she'll be sorry she opened her big mouth," she glared at the girl walking away with her back to us. A second later, she changed her tone while turning to me, "I can't believe you said something back. I'm proud of you," she smiled as she finished her words.

"I'm just tired of everyone praising him like he's a god. He's not even nice, what's so good about him?" I thought back to when he looked down on me while introducing himself.

"He's not that bad, which reminds me. How come you guys were sitting together last week?"

"We weren't. Hey, but other than that you're rank 5!" I said as I scanned through the board, attempting to change the subject.

"You're kidding!" Her eyes widened.

"I'm not, look!" I pointed to her name.

"As expected," she beamed proudly. "Let's go back to class then," she motioned towards the room and I nodded. We squeezed through the crowd of students huddling around the scoreboard anxiously, letting out a sigh as we made it past them.

"So you're not going to tell me what that was about?" She asked as we walked down the hall.

"What?"

"Whatever happened after you finished your test."

"Nothing happened. I was going to take a nap while waiting for you and he just sat down."

"That's it?"

"Well, I ended up taking a nap anyway, but yes. That's all."

"Interesting..." she didn't seem to believe that was all to it, but there was no way for me to prove nothing happened.

***

Mrs. Lim was late today so the class was talking amongst themselves for a bit. About 20 minutes after the bell rang, she finally walked in.

"Sorry about that. The teachers had a meeting that ran over," she said as she placed her clipboard onto the desk. "Now. I have something very important to tell all of you," she paused before saying anything more.

The class exchanged glances, worried about what Mrs. Lim could say. "As you all know, you must complete 30 hours of volunteer service for this year. Because it can be quite demanding, the teachers and I have decided to group you all into pairs. We've already selected the pairs, so once they've been finalized I will post them up on the class board. If you have any questions please ask me separately," she said as she looked around the classroom, studying the students.

She turned her head in a specific direction before speaking. "Seungmin. Could you pass out these packets? They contain the information you'll all need to complete your volunteer hours," she smiled as she held up a stack of papers.

"Yes ma'am," he stood up from his seat and made his way to the front of the room before carefully taking the packets from Mrs. Lim. She scanned the room one last time before making her way out.

Seungmin made his way to every row, handing out the packets to the person at the very front. I waited as the stack of packets made its way down the row of students in front of me, growing smaller and smaller as they turned around. The girl in front of me stretched her hand back, waving the packets in her hand as if I couldn't see.

I took them from her before turning around to hand the last one to Jiyeon. "Here you go," I said as I placed it on her desk.

"I can't believe we have to get 30 hours this year," she groaned before picking up the packet. "Why do they increase the amount of time each year? Do they think I don't have a life?" She sighed while flipping through the packet lifelessly.

***

Students walked in and out of the classroom during study time. Only a few, such as myself, actually used the time to study. As I was concentrating on highlighting the keynotes, Minho nudged me. "Yes?" I put my highlighter down and looked at him.

"Can you help me with this problem? I don't get it," he said while pushing his book towards me.

"Sure." This would be good practice for me anyway.

I picked up my pen and began explaining the process to him. He nodded at my words, but I knew he wasn't listening. I let out a sigh as I placed down the pen and faced him. "If you're not going to try and listen then why did you ask for my help?"

"I am listening. You just told me how to solve the problem, and that means the answer is A," he said confidently.

"That's right...the answer is A but..." I mumbled softly as I looked at the workbook.

"See, I told you I was listening," he said as he playfully poked my head, causing me to look back at him. He stared at me with a soft smile before pulling his workbook back in front of him, and picking up his pen to solve the remaining problems.

I was greatly astounded by the way he acted. He usually slept in class instead of doing his work, yet he always managed to pass the tests. I couldn't understand why he suddenly felt the need to study, but I decided to wave off the thought and bring my attention back to the book in front of me. I picked up my highlighter and began going through the material once more.

"Guys! Mrs. Lim just posted the volunteer chart on the board!" One of the boys in class shouted as he poked his head through the door.

Please let my partner be someone nice.