And with that, the lesson ended, and it was time for lunch.
“Everyone, go and have your lunch.”
The moment the teacher spoke, the students erupted in cheers.
Of all the pleasures school had to offer, nothing quite compared to mealtime. The students had just experienced their first taste of the distinctive lessons at a science high school, and the mention of food instantly relieved their tension. They returned to their usual noisy selves.
Kang Woo had gathered his books and was about to get up when someone called out to him.
“Kang Woo, I need to speak to you.”
Cha Do-do had stopped him.
Having arrived late at the cafeteria the previous day and endured an uncomfortable meal at the teachers' table, Kang Woo's expression immediately darkened.
Was his homeroom teacher some kind of vengeful spirit determined to keep him from eating?
As he stared at her in silent protest, Cha Do-do gave a little laugh.
“You look rather unhappy.”
“I still have to eat, you know.”
“Did anyone say you couldn't? There's plenty of food in the cafeteria.”
“There might be plenty of food, but there won't be any seats left.”
“Aha!”
Cha Do-do gave him a meaningful look, as though she finally understood.
“So you don't want to sit and eat with me?”
“No.”
Her lovely features tightened into a frown.
“Hmm. This is the first time in my life a boy has rejected me like that.”
“Pardon? How did it turn into that...?”
How could a student possibly enjoy his food while sitting at a table full of teachers? Did he really have to explain something so obvious?
Kang Woo nodded faintly, maintaining his silent protest. Cha Do-do smiled. Judging by her expression, she was joking.
“The other boys would jump at the chance to eat with me, but you're a peculiar one. I'm very popular with the students, you know...”
'What's the use of being pretty? You're completely out of reach anyway.'
Kang Woo barely swallowed the words rising to his throat and offered a different explanation instead.
“It's uncomfortable eating in front of the other teachers.”
“Oh, is that it? All right, I understand. Go on, then. We'll talk another time.”
When Cha Do-do let him go without further argument, Kang Woo cheered inwardly. Without even saying goodbye, he hurried out of the classroom.
Watching him leave, Cha Do-do shook her head.
* * *
On her way to the cafeteria, Son Cha-hee was beginning to feel as though her ears might fall off from Yoon Su-a's incessant chatter.
“Wasn't Kang Woo incredible?”
“What was incredible about him?”
“He knows so many unusual things!”
“I know that much too.”
Son Cha-hee answered with an irritated grumble.
The things Kang Woo had explained today were surely written somewhere in a reference book. She simply had not paid much attention to them because she had assumed they would never appear on an exam. Even if she had studied them properly, there would have been no reason to remember them if they were not going to be tested. Memorizing material that would not appear on an exam was a waste of effort.
“But you couldn't have explained it the way he did, could you?”
“Are you saying I'm not as good as Kang Woo?”
Son Cha-hee suddenly narrowed her eyes, her voice turning sharp. Sensing her friend's mood, Yoon Su-a immediately fell silent.
Son Cha-hee only became this prickly when she encountered a rival. Until now, the only person who had provoked such a reaction from her was Lee Min-chan.
Yoon Su-a instinctively realized that it would be disastrous if Son Cha-hee and Kang Woo fell out. Weren't they in the same group? Harmony among group members was important.
If Son Cha-hee understood that, she would not want to clash with Kang Woo, if only for the sake of her grades.
As they walked, Yoon Su-a considered how she might help their group get along better.
“Hey, sister!”
A voice called out to them from behind. Son Cha-hee, whose mood had only just begun to improve, immediately scowled.
It was that boy Go Hyeon-seong from the neighboring group. He had been hanging around her since the first day, and she had caught him sneaking glances at her several times today as well.
Whether Son Cha-hee welcomed him or not, Go Hyeon-seong came hurrying over and fell into step beside her.
“Your group did pretty well today, didn't it?”
“So what?”
“That brother of yours... His name was Kang Woo, right? Didn't he say he hadn't studied ahead?”
“He did.”
“How can a guy who's never studied ahead work with integrals?”
“Maybe they teach that at his school.”
Son Cha-hee kept walking, making it clear that she did not want to talk to him. But Go Hyeon-seong continued pestering her.
“If it hadn't been for that guy, our group would've won... Sang-cheol was disappointed too. He said he missed his chance.”
Whether the neighboring group's strong performance had been thanks to Jeon Sang-cheol or Go Hyeon-seong, they were opponents Son Cha-hee had to watch out for.
She had been walking briskly, but now she stopped dead and glared at Go Hyeon-seong.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“I'm asking you to have lunch with us. Sang-cheol's coming too.”
When Son Cha-hee spotted Jeon Sang-cheol approaching from the other direction, her eyebrows drew together at once.
“No, thanks. You eat with your group, and I'll eat with mine.”
“But those two boys in your group aren't even—”
Go Hyeon-seong had been pressing his case confidently, but he abruptly fell silent when a shadow loomed over him. Choi Dae-woo had appeared right beside him without his noticing.
Choi Dae-woo was already a large boy, and as he stood looking down at Go Hyeon-seong, he somehow seemed even bigger than usual.
“O-okay, fine.”
Startled, Go Hyeon-seong backed away.
Son Cha-hee resumed walking without looking back, while Yoon Su-a caught hold of Choi Dae-woo's sleeve.
“Where's Kang Woo?”
“The teacher kept him behind...”
“Didn't Kang Woo eat with the teachers yesterday too?”
“I don't know.”
Until around lunchtime yesterday, Kang Woo had hardly made any impression on anyone. Apart from Yoon Su-a, no one had paid him much attention.
Yoon Su-a tilted her head.
“It's strange how Kang Woo always seems to end up with the teachers. I wonder if he likes older women?”
“What are you talking about now?”
Son Cha-hee spun around and fixed her with a fierce look.
“N-no, nothing. I was just saying.”
Deciding that Son Cha-hee was in a bad mood, Yoon Su-a promptly shut her mouth.
It seemed she would have to come up with some extraordinary plan to keep the group together. She pushed the image of the two quarreling out of her mind.
If they started fighting... their group would fall apart that very day.
* * *
Go Hyeon-seong was watching Son Cha-hee walk away, his lips twitching with irritation, when Kang Woo hurried past him on his way to the cafeteria.
Go Hyeon-seong quickly caught hold of him.
“Hey, brother! I need a word with you.”
“Me?”
Kang Woo turned around, struggling to contain his annoyance.
Who was this? From his face, he recognized him as a classmate. He was the boy who had gone up to the board and added two more ways of calculating the Earth's mass just now... but Kang Woo could not remember his name.
He had already forgotten all the names he had barely managed to memorize on the first day.
“Kang Woo!”
“Yeah, I'm Kang Woo. Who are you?”
Kang Woo tilted his head as though he genuinely had no idea. Go Hyeon-seong's face began to flush with anger.
“What's with you, brother? You don't even know your rival's name?”
“What rival?”
“That contest just now, about ways to calculate the Earth's mass...”
“What are you, one of the Eagle Five?”
“What kind of ancient joke is that...?”
For a moment, Go Hyeon-seong was rendered speechless, but he barely managed to suppress his anger. He looked like someone desperately trying not to fall into a trap.
“Anyway, why did you stop me? I'm busy. I need to get lunch.”
“Same here.”
“What do you mean, same here? Have you ever suffered through eating lunch beside your homeroom teacher?”
Go Hyeon-seong clearly had no idea what Kang Woo was talking about. His expression started to twist again before he managed to compose himself.
“So what is it?” Kang Woo asked.
“Brother! I challenge you!”
“To what, all of a sudden?”
Kang Woo genuinely could not understand why Go Hyeon-seong was behaving this way. Why now, of all times?
“I'm going to beat you in math class this afternoon. No matter what.”
“Fine. Win if you want.”
Kang Woo tried to continue walking, but Go Hyeon-seong grabbed his arm.
He was already impatient to get going, and the repeated interruptions were beginning to make his temper rise. The boy kept pulling the whiskers of a sleeping lion.
“A contest? Forget it. I'm not interested. Why don't you get lost while I'm still asking nicely?”
“You bastard! Don't run away!”
Go Hyeon-seong's face twisted with anger, but Kang Woo merely chuckled, pried the boy's hand off his arm, and brushed down his clothes.
“If you want a contest, put something on the line.”
“Of course. If I win, you stay away from our sister Cha-hee.”
What nonsense was this now? Kang Woo stared at him in disbelief.
“Stay away from her? What are you talking about?”
They would have to be involved in the first place for him to stay away.
“And don't give me any excuses about being in the same group. From now on, don't even talk to Cha-hee.”
Kang Woo immediately saw through the boy's intentions.
Judging from his behavior, Go Hyeon-seong was clearly interested in Son Cha-hee. Kang Woo had no particular desire to interfere with the boy's romantic pursuits, but... if the other party wanted something, shouldn't he offer something of equal value in return?
Kang Woo patted Go Hyeon-seong on the shoulder.
“Cha-hee, huh... Fine. But you have to wager something too. So what are you putting up?”
Go Hyeon-seong's eyes widened as though the thought had never occurred to him.
“I'll stay away from her too...”
He was about to offer the same condition without thinking when he realized he could never agree to stay away from Son Cha-hee.
He would have to wager something else.
“W-well... Ah! I'll buy you a meal! Off campus!”
“Hmm.”
A meal, was it? Kang Woo had no real involvement with Son Cha-hee to give up, so there was no risk to him. And a free meal was not a bad prize.
On the other hand, the thought of eating alone with a young boy did not appeal to him in the slightest. So...
“Fine. You'll buy me a meal wherever I choose. Okay?”
“Deal, brother! You'd better start admitting you're finished. See you in math class this afternoon!”
Go Hyeon-seong hurriedly sealed the agreement and dashed away.
Watching him go, Kang Woo clicked his tongue.
“I have no idea what that was about, but I just earned myself a free meal.”
* * *
After lunch came mathematics.
Mathematics might be the subject ordinary high school students hated most, but that certainly did not apply here. At this school, mathematics was the subject students liked best and felt most confident about.
Most of them had entered mathematics competitions as regularly as they ate meals while in middle school, and some had even won prizes in the Korean Mathematical Olympiad for middle school students.
As a result, most students' eyes sparkled with enthusiasm during mathematics class.
Kang Woo, of course, was an entirely different story.
Seated at the very back, he let out a long yawn. Fortunately, they were sitting individually rather than in groups for this lesson, so he had managed to secure the rearmost seat.
Son Cha-hee and Yoon Su-a, his fellow group members, were seated directly in front of the teacher's desk. Choi Dae-woo's imposing frame stood out somewhere around the middle of the room.
'Is sitting at the front really that much fun? You can't even sleep up there.'
The teacher who appeared at the lectern made a striking impression.
“My name is Jeong Myeong-uk. My nickname is Baldy.”
“Pwahaha!”
The students burst into laughter.
And indeed, Jeong Myeong-uk was as bald as a monk. His forehead was exceptionally broad, and only a few strands of hair remained on the top of his head. His gleaming scalp reflected the ceiling lights, shining brilliantly.
Had he spent time cultivating enlightenment at Shaolin Temple? He did not even look that old...
“I'll be teaching first-year mathematics this year. I hope we get along over the next twelve months.”
For some reason, Kang Woo sensed an inexplicable aura emanating from the mathematics teacher. Was it the majesty of that bald head?
'Well, I'll manage somehow.'
As a physics major, he had studied mathematics extensively. To be frank, when it came to applications involving calculus, he had studied more of it than many mathematics majors. Fortunately, the mathematics taught in the science track of high school centered on calculus, so it was not very different from the mathematics he knew.
“Throughout the history of Goryeo Science High School, there have been three great geniuses. Have you heard of them?”
Jeong Myeong-uk had introduced an intriguing subject in the meantime.
Most of the students took pride in believing themselves to be geniuses, or at least close to it, so they could hardly help paying attention. Stories about exceptional upperclassmen were bound to capture their eager interest.
“No, sir.”
“Our school doesn't have a particularly long history, but three former students stand out as true geniuses. They had something in common: all three competed in the International Mathematical Olympiad and won gold medals. Each won at least two gold medals and helped lead our country to victory.”
Gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad were not awarded to just one person. That did not diminish their value, however.
“Wow!”
“At our school, there have been so many students who won Olympiad gold medals that you can practically trip over them. If you want to become a genius whose name goes down in history, you'll have to win at least two gold medals. Who knows? Perhaps one of you will turn out to be a genius for the ages.”
Jeong Myeong-uk went on to recount the unusual exploits of those three geniuses with great flair.
He told them how outstanding the three had been during their school years, how they could understand ten things after being taught one, and even the almost legendary tale of how they had astonished a visiting professor from Hanguk University.