Two days later, the first year’s group chat at M High exploded from a handful of strong opinioned posts, immediately creating a buzz in the online community.
The original post that started it all was nothing but a harmless link that led to the city’s online newspaper site.
The site made a report about M High’s joint science competition, and ended their article with a short interview given by the winner. That, in itself, was nothing buzz-worthy.
However, the girl who won the joint mathematics-IT-geography competition at the age limit of fifteen-sixteen years was a first year humanities student.
Now, that was more than interesting.
The winner, Hoor Linda, previously went to a science-focused class. She was brilliant with the sciences but didn’t imagine her future in engineering or research, so had switched to the humanities stream at the start of high school.
She still liked to compete for fun, though, and went to a bunch of competitions, be it composition, programming or anything science-themed. That was what she told the interviewer. The competition, to her, was just for fun.
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[lizard emoji] (classE): @OP do you want to say something by linking this?
DJG_parks (classE): @[lizard emoji] unquestionably, OP sent out a feud without actually saying anything. That’s quite cowardly if u ask me. But, like, how shameless can that girl get? She’s basically saying I only won for fun. It doesn’t matter to me. Tsk. Tsk.
Remi (classE): I second that, she’s really cunning.
Remi (classE): ‘As a humanities student…’ They just had to highlight that. So annoying. We’ve been looked down on, no?
d.ying~~ (classD): Hahaha. Does anyone know Hoor Linda? Is she this arrogant in real life too?
˘-˘foolish love out now˘-˘ (classB): I heard she went to a specialised science class in middle school. @vOUngsimi she’s your past classmate. Spill about her.
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A variety of names flashed through the screen in the group chat. To Sae, none of them made any sense, but the class information after each name helped him navigate.
It was obvious at a look that the science class was the leader in this hunt, indignation and envy spilling from each of their sentences.
vOUngsimi (classA): I indeed know her. Actually, Linda is really nice! She isn’t like what you all try to make her out to be, so stop it. It's not funny.
DJG_parks (classE): @vOUngsimi are you perhaps that bratty girl from class A? You know the saying, right? Birds of a feather…
WiK (classE): hahhahahahahaha
KC (classE): that girl only won bc our class didn’t participate,,, we’re preparing for the olympiad. who’d want to waste time with an in-school competition?
Isaa (classC): trying to downplay it now that you’re full of envy, I see… Maybe you didn’t read more than two sentences from the article but if somebody wins at this tiny in-school competition, they’re up for regionals, brainiacs.
KC (classE): oh, I see,,, the rest of humanities are scurrying out so fast~~ @Isaa honey, someone would think you’re the one who won.
Isaa (classC): @KC well it certainly isn’t you~~
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Sae scrolled down without any expression on his face. There were more than 800+ notifications in this chat, and somewhere down this rabbit hole, his name got tagged as well.
A few glances told him the basic state of things. The science class was butthurt and tried to downplay Hoor Linda’s win. A few boisterous comments went so far as to challenge Class C’s intellect. Hence, the humanities students had no choice but to defend not just Linda’s but their collective honour as well.
With lines like, Kids calm down. Does this concern you? What does it matter when she’s not the first in her class, not the first in the year, and She’d never beat Deil. Just wait until we get back from the olympiads... who could take it lying down?
According to the time stamp, five minutes into the conversation Teo had broken in like a hurricane, passing out praises left and right.
T.o.T (classC): Shit, people would think you’re all Shum Deil’s personal reincarnations with how loud you can boast. Try to be a bit more humble, kids. Kindness is a virtue. I’ll wait until you can all line up with those medals of merit spelling out first, respectively. Then we can all sit down to talk. I’ll invite Linda as well, just for your sake.
T.o.T (classC): At least bring those preliminary competition scores to decorate the classroom walls. Let’s show the world that model conduct the science students are all about! [thumbs up]
When Sae read that message, he snorted. Once Teo got indignant and opened his mouth, he could really diss someone. Needless to say, after those particular lines, the group chat blew up even more. It was close to an all-out war in the making.
Out of all he said, Teo was especially right in one thing. Several people tagged @thatkid_SD, trying to involve Shum Deil who, by the way, paid zero mind to their constant spamming.
Sae scrolled down to the end of the chat records. The last couple of messages weren’t even about the article, but two girls asking for help with one of their papers. He couldn’t understand the mentality of these people. Why make a fuss out of every little thing?
In Sae’s hand, the phone went off with another incoming notification. He changed chat rooms to read the message:
T.o.T: quick! someone help me think of a plan on how to coerce Sae into playing in the class basketball team at Game Day!!! that kid is so mean, he said it’ll never work out (T⌓T)
Sae normally hardly ever participated in these online chats. He could handle a one-on-one type of conversation, but he always lagged behind in the whirlwind of multiple people trying to talk over each other's heads at the same time. He popped up once in a blue moon, read the few messages at the very bottom of the chat, and never scrolled back to the start to thoroughly read over the root of the current topic thrown into conversation.
Now he became the first one to see Teo’s message.
hhhsae: ...
Sae could see the line ‘one person is typing’ going on and off for a good three minutes meanwhile others joined in on the conversation. After a quick and panicked struggle, Teo straight up wrote at Sae.
T.o.T: excuse me, but what are you even doing here? Because of your stubbornness, I have some plotting to do now. Shoo,,, shoo!!
Emi directly sent a voice message of her cackling while Kaikai typed five whole lines of the applause emoji.
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True to Shum Deil’s words, the discussion about the sports meet had finally reached the humanities class, too.
Bán Yidan stood before the teacher’s desk and rapped his knuckles until most of his classmates paid attention.
“As you’ve already seen, there will be a total of fourteen events to participate in. Some of them will clash with others time-wise, but everyone has to sign up for at least two activities. You have time up to Friday to sign up. Come to me, and I’ll write down the names.” As a result of endless teasing from his past classmates, the little class president hardened his shell in the last few months.
He confidently went on, “For team activities, only sign up when there is a team with the minimum lineup plus reserve players. Don’t sign up if you only have the bare minimum but no backup numbers. One team per class is allowed for every activity. You need to talk it out between yourselves.”
From the moment they heard the last two sentences, Teo and Kaikai had squeezed Sae arm-in-arm, trying to badger him to join the basketball matches.
The time limit for ball games at the sports meet was short. They were also elimination matches all the way through. Same for handball, volleyball and football. Sae didn’t wish to bother. Their team didn’t stand a chance anyway.
Ever since the announcement, it became hard for Sae to dodge the two tenacious dogs following him everywhere.
Now, it seemed Teo was after outside help too…brilliant.
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Thursday morning before lessons started, Pan Rita made a detour to the humanities class. The class didn’t have any lessons with her on Thursdays, so her visit had a definite purpose.
When Sae made it to the semi-national English competition, Pan Rita didn't make much fuss about it. Out of the four students who qualified for the next round, not everyone was part of their class, so she only read the names and congratulated the students in general. But now, unlike that time, she expressed how proud she felt of Hoor Linda making it to first place in the science competition. She called, “Hoor Linda, come out.”
A few students hooted as Linda went to the front of the class.
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Pan Rita had a certificate in her hand. She read, “Hoor Linda, first place. This student is awarded this certificate for her outstanding achievement in M High’s joint science competition.” She handed the certificate over and congratulated, “Well done, Linda.”
The class applauded. Hoor Linda thanked them with a smile and went back to her seat.
Pan Rita reminded everyone, “Don’t forget to sign up for the sports meet! You still have two days. We’ll talk about the entries tomorrow afternoon.”
The thing with the science class was far from being a closed and forgotten deal. The students seemed unable to get over it and move on.
In the joint in-school competition, the science class had been utterly defeated. The student from their class coming in as the runner-up was one thing, but the fact that they lost to a humanities student was unimaginable. The animosity in their hearts reared its ugly head, complaining in and even outside of the first year’s chat. They said that the competition wasn’t fair. Their class’ MVP did not even compete.
That meant Shum Deil.
Unfortunately, Shum Deil didn’t give a damn about hoisting his academic transcript with competitions and whatnot. He distanced himself from these things and was disinclined to change his mind even for the honour of his class.
Of course, the remarks of the first year science class eventually made their way into the ears of not only the students, but also the teachers.
The humanities students felt indignant, and for a reason. Pan Rita, however, told them not to pay too much attention and not sink to that level. Before moving to her lesson, she advised, “Keep the reputation of a clear-headed and mature class. That’s all for now. Class prez, follow me for a moment.”
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During lunch, Teo was still droning on about their chances as one united team for the basketball matches. “I don’t even want you in the lineup.” Teo pleaded. “Just sign as a reserve player?”
Sae blinked at him and ladled soup into his mouth. There wasn’t anything else left on his tray; two portions of meat and rice vanished in a blink of an eye.
His unresponsiveness irked Teo, who hit the table with his palm. “Isn’t this a bit too much?”
Minke, who sat at Teo’s left, flinched and stood up. She relocated beside Sae without a word.
“The midterms are coming up. Is solving the issue of the basketball team for Game Day really your highest priority?” Sae put down the spoon in his hand and sighed. “And if I sign up as a reserve, then what? Is there a full lineup?”
In actuality, the humanities class didn’t have many students suited to play basketball, while the ball game matches were planned to start almost at the same time. For some reason, all of the tall kids in their class went for volleyball, closely followed by football.
Teo sucked on his teeth before speaking. “I’ll take care of it. There must be others besides Kaikai and me who are around or over a hundred-and-seventy centimetre and free, no?”
“Name one,” Minke said.
“The class prez,” Teo replied.
“Yidan? You want him to play with you?” Sae shook his head and chuckled. “You know what? If you can get him to play, I’ll sign as a reserve.”
Teo nodded with relief. “What are you signing up for anyway? We only have like three hours to hand in the name list...”
“Tug-of-war. Dodgeball. Jump rope?” Sae still wasn’t sure. He recalled tug-of-war being one of the events he could name.
“All of those require class participation.” Minke wiped her hand on a napkin. “Everyone is in on it; classes are up against each other.”
“Shuttlecock?” Sae was a bit helpless.
“Amazing. Let me call my gran and ask if you could join the old ladies at the public square to practise that swing later next week, alright?” Teo was decidedly asking for a beating. Sae flipped him off.
The school categorised Game Day’s events into three portions: races, ball games, and collective activities. The relay race got sorted by preliminaries and could be said to be the main event of the sports meet. It had the biggest scale. Two weeks before the actual sports meet and ten days before the midterms, registered students for the relay tackled each other for the spots to race at the final competition. From every grade, eight students made a team for the 1600-metre run.
Tug-of-war, dodgeball and jump rope were things in which every student participated, so all members of a class – or part of it – made up a team. Shuttlecock and aerobic… These things weren’t exclusive to girls, but mainly girls signed up for them.
Sae said, “I’ll ask Yidan what event needs people and go for that.”
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Sae finished first and tidied up his seat. Minke and Teo were still in the middle of their lunch. They could take half a day to finish a plate with all their chatting. So Sae left first, telling the other two not to wait for him. He had something to do before classes started.
The dining hall was large and sunny. A row of windows took up one side of the room. Kids lined up before the food counter in a disciplined manner. They were all in a hurry, anticipation brimming up to quickly get their food, but once they queued up, no one tried to cut in line. The lunch ladies didn’t have as much authority as the teachers, but they were nonetheless part of the faculty.
As Sae put his tray back at the end of the counter, he coincidentally found the person he was looking for.
“Class prez, do you have a minute?” Sae nudged up his glasses. “I want to talk about Game Day.”
Bán Yidan waved his hand like it was the most natural thing. “Good timing. I was already on my way to seek you out. You’re the only person who didn’t sign up for anything yet.”
That surprised Sae. Was he really the only one out of their whole class who didn’t seem to care? Sae cleared his throat and looked at the class prez.
Bán Yidan, this person was indeed over 1.7 metres. He was also scrawny and put too much pressure on certain things. Sae watched those arms flapping around for some time before pulling the boy in the direction of their classroom.
The dining hall was on the second floor of block B. Sae and the class prez walked to the entrance when someone brushed past them at double doors, bumping into Sae’s shoulder.
Sae stopped to steady his footing. Yidan stopped as well, even though he didn’t know what had happened. It made an impromptu hold-up right in the way of everyone.
That student who bumped into Sae wasn’t alone. He looked Sae up and down, the corners of his mouth upturned. When Sae tried to step around him, he shifted and stood in the way. “Tch, shouldn’t you say something? If nothing else, watch where you’re going before stumbling into someone.”
A crease made its way between Sae’s brows. “Likewise. You shouldn’t stand in the way.”
“Shit, can’t you see?” that student sneered.
It wasn’t the first time Sae had heard snide remarks like that. At a glance, the other was a first-year, although Sae couldn’t place him in a definite class.
“My description is very up to date,” he deadpanned. “Maybe you ought to take a visit to an ophthalmologist for a check-up.”
Sae was about to move again when that student took a step forward. His companion reached out, trying to hold that student back. He looked at Sae. “Sorry, Sae. Don’t take it to heart. Let’s just leave in peace.”
Sae’s eyes set on the boy who apologised. It was actually an ex-classmate of his from junior high. For the sake of that novelty, Sae decided to leave.
That student wrenched his arm free. “What the fuck, you know him?” He cussed and glared at his companion.
Sae knew that Tomo, his ex-classmate, went to the science class. That made it very possible for the fussy boy to be a science class student, too. The situation suddenly cleared up.
Kids at their age had a high sense of pride. It was to be expected, but in their hearts, some of them were too simple.
“What’s this? Why are you all in the way?” someone asked as they passed in the limited space.
Yidan took a step back, trying to make way for the passing students. He didn’t know what this was about, but he refused to leave by himself.
Noticing the commotion they were making, Tomo tried to make amends once more. He pulled on the big-mouthed science student’s sleeve and said in a low tone, “We were classmates... Come on, you bumped into him, and now we’re in everyone’s way. Let’s just leave.”
That big-mouthed science student was thick-skinned. Without giving Tomo a second thought, he kept provoking Sae. “He looks like a twig with glasses. And he’s from the humanities class too.”
“Still…he’s not someone to mess with,” Tomo said with a furtive glance at Sae.
“Who cares?” The big-mouthed science student couldn’t be deterred. “There’s only their class rep and him. I don’t see anyone else.”
The person in question watched this back and forth with an impassive gaze. Yidan took a look at Sae and flinched. Sae showed such an overbearing expression the sheer force behind his eyes was frightening.
“Move,” Sae said.
Feeling the oppressive weight on his body, the big-mouthed science student swallowed as the laugh got stuck in his throat. He shut his mouth and didn’t say anything further.
Sae let out a light breath, and one corner of his mouth rose a hint. He raised his arm and rolled the sleeve of his jacket over the wrist, then put that hand into the pocket of his slacks.
When the big-mouthed science student saw him raise an arm, he involuntarily flinched and stepped to the side.
Sae sent a look to Yidan, urging him to head off first. He turned to Tomo, who had his eyes on the floor. Actually, Sae wanted to say something, but now the situation turned awkward. Tomo wouldn’t make eye contact with him.
Sae patted Tomo’s shoulder. “See you around.”
“Yea,” Tomo replied with a nod.
Out of the dining hall came Teo and Minke. At a glance, they felt something amiss by this scene.
“Hey, Tomo,” Teo greeted, “What’s up?”
At this moment, the big-mouthed science student reached his limit. He shoved them aside, cursing at Tomo. “Shit, just how many fucking humanities students were your classmates!”
“What? What did I say?” Sae heard Teo ask, but he didn’t stay for what followed. He had to catch up to Yidan before the next lesson.
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Yidan didn’t know what to say to Sae. He was obviously conflicted, while Sae wasn’t a person in constant need to chit-chat in the first place, so they made their way back to the classroom in silence. Once there, Yidan went straight to the teacher’s desk and pulled a big sheet of paper from its drawer.
He flatted the paper out and turned to Sae, “So what were you thinking about?”
Sae looked over the sheet of paper laid out on the desk. The first column contained a list of names. Every student in the humanities class had a row next to their names with ample space to write up to three or four events they wanted to participate in.
The upper right corner of the paper contained every activity of Game Day. Tug-of-war and the likes were printed under each other next to the names column and had a check mark beside every name.
So it was indeed a mandatory class thing.
Sae read through the list, pondering. “Is there any event that is in need of people? I guess the whole point of this day is to give the students a chance to show how versatile they are.”
Yidan nodded. “That’s true, but what about the level of your skills? Most people signed up for something they’re good at or want to try.”
“I’m not so bad at these things.” Sae’s gaze lingered on the activities list. “Tell me what event needs people, and I’ll go for that.”
Bán Yidan reached inside the drawer and pulled out another A4 sheet. This one only had the event names printed in a neat, vertical column. There were numbers next to every event. “Ball games and the cheer performance are fine. Collective events also have enough students participating but the races...”
They went back to the name sheet. Sae found the slot for his name with something already written in it: [Basketball, reserve player]
“You said I’m the only one who didn’t sign up for anything,” Sae said.
“Yeah?” Bán Yidan shot him a baffled look. “Teo told me two days ago that you’ll play reserve, but he still didn’t tell me the full lineup. I wrote that just in case, but it’s not yet valid. I don’t think Teo’s team has their official number. He’ll probably latch onto someone last minute and beg them to play.”
Sae: “…..”
“Races mostly have physical education students going for them. The sixty-metre dash and 400-metre race are fine. There are girls from our class willing to give it a try. But the 1500-metre race and the relay...” Yidan quietened. It was evident that their class was collectively as lazy as a bunch of sloths. If the possibility of not running arose, they’d rather walk; if there was no need to walk, they wouldn't move at all.
Yidan said, after a while, “Those boys just now…they were both science class students.”
Sae didn’t deny it.
“He probably bumped into you because he recognised me as the class president.” Yidan contemplated before adding, “Here’s what I think. Teacher Pan told us not to mind them, but you know how they are. If we want to stand up for ourselves in a dignified manner, it’s either midterms or the sports day.”
Sae hummed and adjusted his glasses. “But you don’t know what events they’ll go for.”
“Races,” Yidan said without a flicker of doubt. “The relay is a hundred per cent sure. Only eight students can represent our grade. Who those eight students will be is a competition in itself.”
“So you’re telling me to go for the 1500-metres and the relay,” Sae concluded.
“Those two need numbers the most. Teo already signed up for the relay, but the 1500-metre race…If you sign up, you’ll be the only one from our class.”