Payback AU: What If

Act 6 - REWARD

It was the last day of school, and the students would usually in haste of leaving their classroom, going to play in the internet café, and such. But today, thanks to the teacher staff delaying their exam result, a lot of students still lingered in the school vicinity. The first-semester exam result was usually concluded earlier, a week before the end of the term. But because of special circumstances—or rather, because of a certain student—the result's announcement was delayed.

That certain student, of course, was Lee Yoohan.

The student in question stared calmly at his report card. For the first time since he was entering middle school, there was no red number. Of course, for this report card to be safely acquired, Yoohan had to go through a series of intense interrogations.

When the exam period was over, Yoohan got called into the faculty room. It was a cliché, really, albeit understandable. Anyone would feel doubtful if the trouble kid who never even bothered to answer the exam sheet suddenly got all black marks. The lowest score, which was English, barely passed the threshold, but it was a pass still. And what of those scores in Math and History? Those were even higher than average. It was suspicious. Naturally, they doubted that Yoohan did the exam himself, even going so far as to ask which student he threatened to substitute his exam sheet with a decent answer.

Yoohan, on his part, was quite amused with these teachers' imagination.

Nevertheless, he needed to prove himself, so with good words from the librarian that surprisingly defended him, Yoohan agreed to retake the whole test. This was why the exam score result was delayed. Yoohan had retaken everything, under the strict watchful gaze of at least two teachers. What was funny was that the result of those retakes was actually higher than the actual exam.

It was funny for Yoohan too—to see the flabbergasted faces of the teachers.

"It's not like I can't do it," Yoohan shrugged his shoulders cheekily when his homeroom teacher confronted him. "I just didn't bother with it before."

And so Yoohan survived the exam, and his mother could breathe in relief. But Yoohan renewed efforts brought about unsavory opinions from other students. Some of them obviously felt suspicious. It didn't matter for Yoohan what other people said or thought. But he had been feeling like he was tailed by some kids, stared at with open hostility.

Yoohan had a guess on where those uncomfortable gazes came from. Like in every school, Yoohan's school also had those cliché groups of the school gangs. Surprisingly, Yoohan didn't like mingling with them—a bunch of actually able and rich kids exerting superiority. He preferred those drop-out kids in the corner street; unsavory as they might be, they were lack pretentiousness. Somehow, these kids didn't like Yoohan, but they never made any move because Yoohan was just another trouble kid. But now that Yoohan stepped up to be a normal student, it didn't sit well with these kids.

So Yoohan walked outside while pondering on whether it was better to just let them be or confronted them first. But before he could make up his mind, his eyes caught the familiar sight of a black sports car and its high schooler owner.

Naturally, there's also a crowd gathered not far that gawked at this outrageous scenery. Yoohan groaned and contemplated running away secretly, but Yoon Jay's ever-sharp eyes already caught and beckoned him to come. Begrudgingly, Yoohan walked toward the high schooler with a heavy sigh.

"Why are you creating spectacle here?" Yoohan tutted in dissatisfaction.

Jay chuckled and flicked Yoohan's brow that seemed to be always frowning most of the time. "I'm just standing here doing nothing. Should I just shout at people to disperse?"

Yoohan covered his forehead with gritted teeth. You doing nothing is already enough to attract attention. "Then you shouldn't come here at all."

"Wow, Lee Yoohan, is that something you should say to your tutor?" Jay held his palm up and Yoohan groaned in defeat, placing his report card politely with both hands on Jay's palm.